Flipped learning is when learners look at part of the learning material before class. During class, the time is used to practise the language, answer questions and do more group work. The term comes from taking a traditional approach to teaching and turning it upside down, flipping the model.
Read the text to find out more about flipped learning.
How did flipped learning start?
It all started in 2006 with two chemistry teachers at a US secondary school.
They had a lot of learners who often missed class. The teachers were frustrated because they had to repeat a lot of lessons and information. They decided to record their lessons.
They put their lessons online, and the learners watched the recordings before class.
The learners could watch at home, on their phones or on laptops at school in their breaks. They could watch the lessons when they were ready and in their own time.
This helped solve some of the issues of learners missing class.
How does this apply to English language teaching?
The first step is to think about the content and stages of a lesson.
Think about a lesson you taught recently. Select the tasks your learners did.
- Read a text
- Watch a video
- Answer comprehension questions
- Do a gap-fill
- Complete a matching exercise
- Listen to an audio
These are common classroom activities, and the chances are that your learners do these types of exercises fairly often in their language classes.
What about you, as the teacher? Look at the list of common teacher tasks in the classroom.
Select the ones that you have done recently.
- Check answers with the whole class
- Explain a grammar point
- Explain the meaning of new vocabulary
- Play a video
- Read a paragraph from the coursebook
These are common classroom activities, and the chances are that your learners do these types of exercises fairly often in their language classes.
What about you, as the teacher? Look at the list of common teacher tasks in the classroom.
- Select the ones that you have done recently.
- Check answers with the whole class
- Explain a grammar point
- Explain the meaning of new vocabulary
- Play a video
- Read a paragraph from the coursebook
I recently taught a lesson from my coursebook that was on the topic of famous scientists.
The grammar focus was on the past simple. I thought about the types of activities that we do as a whole class. I often ask myself the question: Can my learners do this on their own at home? If the answer is yes, I create worksheets or explanations for them to do at home.
So for this lesson, I gave my learners a table on how to form the past simple, with questions and negatives included.
I gave them some of the verbs from the lesson so they could learn the past tense forms before the lesson.
I also gave them some of the vocabulary from the lesson, with a gap-fill to complete the sentences. They can look up the meaning themselves on their phones or using a dictionary.
In class, we started with a discussion about famous scientists, then we played a game, in groups, to revise the past tense verbs.
Then the learners did a jigsaw activity, where each group had different information about famous scientists and they asked questions in the past tense to complete a table.
Advantages
Using a flipped learning approach means that class time is used to help learners use the language.
In a flipped classroom, the learners come ready for the topic, with an understanding of the grammar, so there is more time for meaningful practice. There is more learner talking time, which is motivating for learners.
Disadvantages
It can be time-consuming to find and prepare materials for learners.
If using online materials or storing materials online, you also need to find a place to do this.
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