Virtual learning prototype in flipped classroom for developing English listening and reading skills of undergraduates in Thai higher education institutions

Abstract

The purpose of this research and development study was (1) to explore and analyze the level of English receptive skills of undergraduates studying in Thai higher education institutions, (2) to develop the prototype of virtual learning as implemented in flipped classrooms in improving Thai undergraduates’ English receptive skills, and (3) to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed prototype of virtual learning as a tool implemented in flipped classrooms in developing Thai undergraduates’ English receptive skills. The research methodology was explained as follows: the samples of this study were 160 undergraduate students, and 40 students from four regions of Thailand, namely North, Northeast, Southern, and Central were purposively selected. The other 30 potential undergraduates studying English as a required general education subject at Prince of Songkla University were samples for the experiment. The actual TOEIC test, listening rubrics, reading rubrics, and virtual tasks have been employed as research instruments. The data has been analyzed by ANOVA and t-Test. The results of the study can be summarized as follows: 1. Thai undergraduate students had poor English receptive skills as the TOEIC total mean score was 342.55, the lowest was 165, and the highest was 495 out of 990. These can be considered at the level of Elementary Proficiency (255-400) which was lower than the university requirement of not less than 450 total TOEIC scores. 2. The designed prototype included of 10 lesson plans applied the three virtual platforms, namely Second Life, VRChat, and the ClassStart taught in flipped classrooms were beneficial for developing students’ English receptive skills. 3. Considering the overall development of students’ English receptive skills both listening and reading from their pre and post-test scores of the total English TOEIC scores after applying the prototype in teaching and learning, the results showed that the students had significant development of their English receptive skills both listening and reading as their total English TOEIC scores from the post-test were higher than that of their pre-test.