An Analytical Investigation of Flipped Classroom to Improve Saudi EFL Learners’ Speaking Skills: a Case Study at Applied College

Abstract

The flipped classroom strategy in the Saudi educational system is changing how we gather information, research, and share data with others. New technology tools are transforming the educational community and how instructors transmit information to students. With this new tool, the flipped classroom technology method is being used on a bigger scale at most academic levels, particularly in Saudi Arabia. This study investigated the flipped classroom method (FCM), i.e., hybrid-flexible and hyflex models based on tri-model teaching approaches, to enhance the speaking skills of EFL students at Applied College for Girls, King Khalid University, at college level, and identify students’ opinions and responses towards the strategies used by the instructors. This research answered the following questions significantly: (i) What are EFL students’ opinions about their English speaking skills? (ii) To what extent does mixing FCM affect EFL students’ speaking skills? (iii) what are the EFL students’ opinions about integrating FCM into speaking lessons? A quasi-method was adopted to collect the control (N = 32) and the focused (N = 24) groups’ data. Two sets of opinion and satisfactory questionnaires were sent to the students to gain their opinions on learning the speaking skill, including the teacher’s observation to perceive the methodology and the instruments used to access speaking during the study. Finally, a focused group interview was conducted to ascertain the students’ satisfaction and homogeneous proficiency level in fulfilling the aims of adopting the flipped classroom approach. After one semester (13 weeks) of intervention, the outcomes revealed the significant overview that the students appreciated and found the FCM adequate in being more fluent, confident, and competent in their production classes. The findings might provide other valuable information for researchers involved in EFL advanced pedagogy to explore the operative speaking teaching method and module.