This study investigates the effects of the flipped classroom approach on five aspects of written communicative competence of learners of English as a foreign language (EFL): lexis, syntax, cohesion, pragmatics, and discourse. It experimented on two groups of Chinese undergraduates in a regular college English course, using a flipped learning approach on one group and a traditional lecture approach on the other. The results from a pre-test and post-test revealed that the flipped approach had differential effects on the aforementioned five sub-competencies. More specifically, the flipped group’s overall performance was better than the control group in the post-test, indicating an overall positive role of the flipped approach on EFL learners’ development of communicative competence. However, significant group differences were found only on the learners’ lexical, cohesive, and pragmatic competencies, and not on their syntactical or discourse competencies. These findings thus provide further insights on how the flipped method might be strategically used to facilitate the learners’ language development.
This study investigates the effects of the flyswatter game on elementary students’ Chinese vocabulary learning. Using a pre‐ and post‐test design, the study examined the development by two groups of beginner learners in Laos. Both groups received the same Chinese course, with the experimental group being taught with the flyswatter game while the control with a traditional method. The results suggest that the experimental group had significantly larger improvement than the control group, especially regarding the learning of the vocabulary types “dates” and “Chinese zodiac animals.” The results also indicate that this game may be more effective for the learning of vocabulary presented in characters than in other forms like pictures. These findings provide insights into a strategic use of this game in elementary classrooms.
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