The flipped classroom is an instructional strategy that encourages students to undertake prior preparation for lessons, in particular through the use of online materials provided by their teachers. Empirical studies of the language classroom have supported the effectiveness of this strategy for language development. However, only a limited number of studies have been undertaken in this field, particularly when it comes to the Arab region. This current study therefore explores the application of the flipped classroom with Kuwaiti student teachers of the English language attending the College of Basic Education in Kuwait. It aims is to explore the pedagogical benefits for the development of writing skills, in particular the experiences and perceptions of learners. The study took place over a period of thirteen weeks during the first semester of the 2019 academic year. The participants were thirty EFL student teachers taking a course in advanced writing. The data collection employed both a questionnaire and semi-structures interviews. The findings revealed that students have a generally positive attitude towards the process of flipping the writing classroom. The results from the questionnaire suggested that the flipped classroom provides: (1) a more effective learning environment; (2) flexible paced learning capable of improving students’ writing strategies (in particular when planning and writing a thesis and topics sentences); and (3) enhancement of students’ motivation and interaction. However, the additional findings from the semi-structure interviews revealed a number of sociocultural and contextual factors with a potentially negative influence on learners’ interaction. This study consequently argues that this classroom transformation demands more than a simple addition of technology and out-of-classroom videos and activities, requiring a change in the way students view education.
Previous Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) research has shown that technology is beneficial for promoting language learning, but some teachers neither use technology as an assisted tool nor integrate it into their language classrooms. It has also been argued that the integration of technology has been unsuccessful in Kuwait. This study aims to explore the factors influencing teachers’ use of technology in English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom in Kuwaiti government primary schools. More specifically, it aims to highlight factors promoting and hindering EFL teachers’ use of technology. For the purpose of this study, 55 questionnaire responses were collected from different primary school teachers in Kuwait, followed up with 15 semi-structured interviews. The study findings show that Kuwaiti primary school EFL teachers who participated in the current study demonstrated positive attitudes towards using technology and acknowledged the implementation of some cutting-edge technologies in their classrooms. Enhancing students’ language learning, innovation and school support were the main factors that encouraged the participating teachers to use technology. Other factors hindered the use of technology; particularly those related to lack of parental support, personal expenses and health problems, teachers’ lack of skills and training, poor classroom infrastructure, and time constraints/workload. The findings also reveal that the lack of professional development training workshops provided by the Ministry of Education led the Kuwaiti teachers to rely more on informal training in which they worked and learnt together with their colleagues in small sub-groups to improve their use of technology. The study findings have implications for policymakers and other stakeholders intending to integrate technology in Kuwaiti primary schools.
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