Flipped Learning and Communicative Competence: An Experimental Study of English Learners

Abstract

Notwithstanding the fact that extensive studies have highlighted the positive impact of flipped learning on developing learners’ skills, the literature has still been silent on its effect on Indonesian English learners’ communicative competence. To address this issue, this experimental study sheds some light on the significant impact of flipped learning method on developing English learners’ communicative competence. A total of 40 English learners of a university in Indonesia were grouped into flipped and non-flipped classrooms. Through the flipped learning, the course materials were delivered by means of Google classroom platform prior to the class, and the classroom activities were mostly allocated for communicative practices. To obtain the data, this study employed a Discourse Completion Task (DCT) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) questionnaire. Drawing on paired sample t-test and descriptive statistics, the results depicted that there was a significant difference between the learners’ pre-test and post-test scores of DCTs in the flipped group, and it significantly outperformed the non-flipped group. The results of TAM questionnaire further indicated that most of the learners appreciated the learning activities conducted in the flipped learning environment, and positively perceived Google classroom as an online platform for language learning. As the conclusion, it is a worth saying that flipped learning by means of Google classroom is an effective method to develop English learners’ pragmatic competence.