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Linköping University | Department of Culture & Communication Linköpings universitet | Institutionen för kultur och kommunikation Thesis 2, 15 credits | Secondary School Teachers’ Programme (years 7-9) - English Produktionsuppsats, 15 hp | Ämneslärarprogrammet (åk 7-9) - Engelska Autumn Term 2017 | ISRN number LIU-GY-L-A--18/001--SE Höstterminen 2017 | ISRN-nummer LIU-GY-L-A--18/001--SE

Flipping the English

Classroom

– Implementing the Flipped Classroom Method in an

English as a Foreign Language Class

Att flippa engelskklassrummet

– Implementering av metoden att flippa klassrummet i

engelskundervisningen

Sonny Östman

Supervisor/Handledare: Nigel Musk Examiner/Examinator: Elin Käck

Linköping University/Linköpings universitet SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden 013-28 10 00, www.liu.se

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Nyckelord Keywords

English, English as a foreign language, the flipped classroom, the communicative classroom English

Institutionen för kultur och kommunikation

Department of Culture and Communication

581 83 LINKÖPING

Seminariedatum Seminar date 17 January 2018

Ämne Subject Språk Language Rapporttyp Type of Report ISRN-nummer ISRN number Engelska English Engelska English Examensarbete 2 (produktion) Thesis 2 LIU-LÄR-EN-A--18/001—SE

Title (in English)

Flipping the English Classroom: Implementing the Flipped Classroom Method in an English as a Foreign Language Class

Titel (svensk översättning)

Att flippa engelskklassrummet: Implementering av metoden att flippa klassrummet i engelskaundervisningen Författare Author

Sonny Östman

Sammanfattning Summary (in English)

This study was carried out in a secondary school in Sweden and was written by one student becoming a teacher of English. The aim of this thesis is to find out how well the flipped classroom method would work in an English class in Sweden and what one needs to bear in mind when implementing the method. The following research questions guided this thesis:

 How did the students and teacher experience the flipped classroom as a teaching approach?  What elements are important to bear in mind when implementing the flipped classroom? The main findings of this study showed that both the students and the teacher were positive towards

implementing some aspects of the flipped classroom such as usingvideo clips, as it was more student-centred and provided more variety to their English classes. Furthermore, this thesis, as well as previous studies, highlights certain aspects one needs to bear in mind when implementing the flipped classroom. Firstly, finding suitable materials is very time consuming initially when one either records or searches for suitable materials to flip that are well-adjusted to the students’ level. Secondly, one needs to understand that homework is essential for the method and one needs routines to make it efficient. Lastly, the essence of the flipped classroom is to free more time in the classroom. Therefore, one needs to construct a well-planned follow-up lesson in order to help the students’ process as to what they learn at a deeper level.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the teacher and students at the Swedish school who participated in this study and made this thesis possible.

I would also like to thank my supervisor, Nigel Musk, for his dedication and support throughout this whole process.

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction ... 1

2. Theoretical Background ... 1

2.1. General Field of English as a Foreign Language ... 1

2.1.1. The Communicative Classroom ... 2

2.1.2. The Communicative Classroom in a Swedish Context ... 3

2.1.3. The Flipped Classroom... 3

2.2. Empirical Studies ... 4

2.2.1. Understanding that Homework is Essential ... 4

2.2.2. Finding Suitable Materials for Homework ... 5

2.2.3. Constructing Suitable Follow-up in the Classroom ... 6

2.2.4. Adjusting to Students’ Ability/Level ... 6

2.2.5. Working Continuously with the Method ... 6

3. Data and Method ... 7

3.1. The Nature of the Data ... 7

3.2. The Procedure for Gathering the Data ... 7

3.2.1. Lesson Plan and Implementation ... 7

3.2.2. Focus Group Discussion ... 9

3.2.3. Qualitative Interview ... 10

3.2.4. Ethical Principles ... 11

3.3. The Procedure for Processing and Analysing the Data ... 11

4. Results ... 13

4.1. Using Videos ... 13

4.2. Variation in Teaching Materials ... 16

4.3. The Role of Homework ... 19

5. Discussion and Conclusions ... 22

5.1. Understanding that Homework is Essential ... 22

5.2. Finding Suitable Materials for Homework ... 23

5.3. Constructing Suitable Follow-up Lesson ... 24

5.4. Adjusting to the Students’ Level/Ability ... 24

5.5. Working Continuously with the Method ... 25

5.6. Limitations and Future Research ... 25

List of References: ... 27

Appendix 1: Focus Group Questions ... 30

Appendix 2: Interview Questions for the Teacher ... 32

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Appendix 4: Letter of Consent, Parents and Students ... 36

Appendix 5: Letter of Consent for the Interview ... 38

Appendix 6: Students’ Transcription... 39

Group 1: ... 39

Group 2: ... 47

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1. Introduction

Today’s advancements in technology have provided students with the opportunity to take their learning beyond the boundaries of the classroom and they can study when it is convenient for them. Teachers face the opportunities and difficulties of personalising their teaching to suit each student and make their classes more student-centred, thus encouraging students to be more active in their learning. Implementing the flipped classroom method could provide such an opportunity for teachers as Leis et al. (2016:2) discuss, as it allows “teachers and students to take learning beyond the classroom, and set the tone for educators in the early years of the twenty-first century”.

The concept of the flipped classroom method was first coined by Wesley Baker in the late 1980’s and has since then been used, foremost, in higher education. Research on the flipped classroom method in secondary school is still limited, especially research conducted in a Swedish context. Nevertheless, the flipped classroom corresponds well to the Swedish curriculum and how teachers are supposed to work within the communicative classroom (Skolverket 2017:35). The aim of this thesis is to investigate how the students and teachers in class experience the flipped classroom method in the subject English at the secondary school level in Sweden. The questions that guide this study are the following:

 How did the students and teacher experience the flipped classroom as a teaching approach?

 What elements are important to bear in mind when implementing the flipped classroom?

2. Theoretical Background

In this chapter, the theoretical framework of this thesis will be presented and contextualised within the relevant field of research. The content will be presented in two sections: the general field, which includes conventional ideas of how teaching should be conducted in an English class, and the empirical studies regarding research similar to this study.

2.1. General Field of English as a Foreign Language

In this section, the “communicative classroom” will be described in accordance with the theories behind it and how it permeates the Swedish curriculum. Furthermore, the flipped classroom method will be described along with its main principles, such as: understanding that homework is essential, finding suitable materials for homework, constructing suitable

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follow-up in the classroom, adjusting to students’ level/ability and lastly working continuously with the method.

2.1.1. The Communicative Classroom

The aim of the communicative classroom is to involve learners in purposeful tasks which reflect language as it is used outside of the classroom, according to Hedge (2002:71). There are five key components to the students’ communicative language ability that are developed using the communicative classroom, which are:

 Linguistic competence, which refers to knowledge of the language itself, its form and meaning. (Hedge 2002:46)

 Pragmatic competence, which refers to knowing how to use the language to achieve communicative goals. (Hedge 2002:48)

 Discourse competence, which refers to the ability to know how ideas are linked across utterances, how to maintain and develop topics. (Hedge 2002:51)

 Strategic competence, which refers to using communicative strategies to express oneself. (Hedge 2002:52)

 Fluency, which refers to the ability to communicate without hindrance such as slowness or strain. (Hedge 2002:54)

Hedge argues that the teachers’ role extend far beyond just presenting and providing the students with new language. They need to help the students develop these previously

mentioned competences as well as the students’ confidence (Hedge 2002:63–67). The English classes should therefore focus on the students in order to help them develop their competences through activities that explicitly make them conscious of the language they are using,

according to Hedge (2002:273). Moreover, Hedge (2002:273–276) explains that in order to construct such activities four needs have to be fulfilled. Firstly, the teachers need to

contextualise the activity by demonstrating the link between communicative function and

linguistic form, for instance how the current structure would be applied in real life situations. Secondly, the students need to be allowed to personalise their language so they can freely express their opinions, feelings and ideas. Thirdly, the students need to become aware of the

social use of language, which means understanding what social behaviour and language is

fitting in a specific situation. Lastly, the teachers need to help the students develop their

confidence, in order for them to be able to produce language automatically and fluently.

Creating a positive classroom climate as a teacher is thus paramount for the students to become confident.

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2.1.2. The Communicative Classroom in a Swedish Context

The productive aim for the subject of English in the Swedish curriculum can in many ways be related to the above-mentioned competences in the communicative classroom. For instance, the Swedish curriculum (Skolverket 2016:35) states that the subject English should aim to develop students’ comprehensive communicative abilities, which can be used in functional and meaningful contexts (pragmatic competence and fluency). Moreover, the students should also feel confident in their ability to be able, want to, and dare to use the language in different situations (linguistic competence) (Skolverket 2016:35). Lastly, the curriculum states that the student should be given opportunities to develop different strategies to cope with different situations (strategic competence and discourse competence) when their linguistic knowledge is not enough (Skolverket 2016:35).

2.1.3. The Flipped Classroom

The flipped classroom was first introduced as an instructional strategy by Wesley Baker in the late 1980s. However, his idea was not feasible to any great extent because computer

technology was not so developed during that time. Due to the advances of computer

technology, the World Wide Web and foremost the launch of YouTube in 2006, Baker’s ideas have subsequently been realised and further developed into what today is known as flipped classroom.

The flipped classroom is an instructional strategy that gives the students multiple

opportunities to process instructional content, at their own pace and multiple times if needed, before the lesson (Segolsson et al. 2017:77). The flipped classroom consists of the following steps: the teacher either records videos of the lecture or finds suitable already existing videos and shares them with the students before the lessons. The students watch the videos and then participate in the lesson well prepared. The intention behind the flip is to increase the face-to-face time between the teacher and students so that the lesson can be used to process the content rather than as in traditional lectures where the students are passive receivers of information (Mehring 2016:2). The term, the flipped classroom, will be used to describe the pedagogical concept of classroom time primarily being used for quality, student-centred work instead of teacher-led briefings in this study.

The flipped classroom has the same foundation as the communicative classroom, namely Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspective. Hence, the four needs of the communicative classroom are closely related to how one is supposed to work with the flipped classroom method. For example, according to Mehring (2016:2) the students and teacher have greater opportunities to

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use and contextualise the target language in different collaborative learning exercises to highlight the different social uses of language as more time is freed in the classroom. Furthermore, with the additional time in the classroom that can be invested in collaborative learning exercises, the students will have a greater opportunity to personalise their speech and develop the confidence needed to express their opinions.

However, as Segolsson et al. (2017:78) explain, implementing technology in the classroom does not automatically make it a better method as the flipped classroom consists of a number of main principles that are essential for it to work, which are:

 understanding that homework is essential  finding suitable materials for homework

 constructing suitable follow-up in the classroom  adjusting to students’ ability/level

 working continuously with the method

These principles have been brought up in research as areas one needs to pay more attention to when working with the flipped classroom, which will be developed in the next section and connected to relevant research.

2.2. Empirical Studies

This section will present a brief overview of ten peer-reviewed research studies with aims similar to this thesis. The studies were conducted in language classes, mainly English as a foreign language (EFL) and English as a second language (ESL) classes. Five of these studies were carried out within higher education (Basal 2015; Hung 2016; Kvashnina & Martynko 2016; Webb 2014; Leis 2015), two were carried out in middle-school level (Hao 2016; Segolsson et al. 2017) and the remaining three are research reviews (Mehring 2016; Correa 2015; Evseeva & Solozhenko 2015). There is a research gap in how well the flipped classroom would work in secondary school and this is especially the case with research conducted in the Swedish context with the only study being Segolsson et al. (2017). These studies will be connected to the flipped classroom’s principles as mentioned above.

2.2.1. Understanding that Homework is Essential

The flipped classroom rests on the idea that the students receive video clips from the teacher to be viewed at home in order to make the students more prepared for the next lesson which

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should serve the purpose of sorting out any misunderstandings or clarifying any information gaps. The main benefit of the flipped classroom is thus, according to Hung (2016), who conducted a post-test quasi experimental study on 75 students, is to free more time in the classroom to focus on higher level cognitive activities. This is further supported by Kvashnina and Martynko (2016), who used a quantitative method to study what benefits the flipped classroom method has in an EFL setting. Correa (2015:121) and Kvashnina and Marynko (2016:71) show that by using the flipped classroom one changes the order of where the students take in information and process what they have learned by using Bloom’s taxonomy. They argue that in more traditional teacher-led classes, the teacher teaches the content during class which the students try to remember and then process at home without the support of the teacher. They claim that this is flipped in the flipped classroom as can be seen in figure 1, and that this is one of the advantages of using the flipped classroom as the higher-level cognitive activities occur in class instead of at home.

Figure 1. Bloom’s taxonomy and the flipped classroom (Bloom 1956, augmented by the

author)

2.2.2. Finding Suitable Materials for Homework

Finding or creating suitable homework is an important and difficult process when using the flipped classroom method. Evseeva and Solozhenko (2015:208), Correa (2015:112) and Mehring (2016) for instance point out that constructing the videos is very time-consuming and even more so in an EFL environment as English is not the students’ native language and the possibilities of misunderstandings occurring are higher. Furthermore, as Segolsson et al.

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(2017:79), who conducted an 18-month quantitative and qualitative study, note the students have low tolerance for mistakes in the videos and Correa (2015:124) points out that the videos have to be updated every two to three years to accommodate changes in the curriculum. These factors make it harder for teachers to implement the flipped classroom as it demands a great deal of time, which teachers usually do not have.

2.2.3. Constructing Suitable Follow-up in the Classroom

In their studies, Leis (2015:15), Basal (2015:31) and Segolsson et al. (2017:84) stress the importance of a well-planned follow-up lesson in the classroom. One of the flipped

classroom’s strengths is to free more time in the classroom by moving the instructions outside of the classroom. However, as Segolsson et al. (2017:84) highlight, it would only be reckless to introduce the flipped classroom without having properly planned what to be done in the lessons. Basal (2015:31) further supports this by saying that there has to be an alignment between what the students learn at home and in school in order for the students to develop deeper level knowledge or else “class time may prove ineffective and time consuming”.

2.2.4. Adjusting to Students’ Ability/Level

As with any other method, the flipped classroom has to be adjusted to the students’ abilities. Correa (2015:122) explains that through the flipped classroom method the students will have more opportunities to fully understand the content being taught as the students can watch the video clips multiple times and then process it during the lesson with the assistance of the teacher and students. However, Segolsson et al. (2017), Kvashinan and Marynko (2016) point out that not all content can be flipped and it is something the teacher needs to adjust to the students. Nevertheless, Segolsson et al. (2017:78) still maintain that “the benefits of the flipped instructions weigh heavier than the disadvantages” and should, therefore, be added to every teacher’s and student’s classroom repertoire. Hao (2016:297), who carried out a

quantitative study on 387 students to find out the students’ readiness to implement the flipped classroom, reached the same conclusion: that the flipped classroom method has to be carefully implemented and well-adjusted to the students’ ability level.

2.2.5. Working Continuously with the Method

Research points out the importance of establishing routines for working with the flipped classroom. Segolsson et al. (2017:84–85) concluded that the benefits of the flipped classroom became visible after the students and teachers adjusted to their new roles. This is further supported by Webb (2014:74), who studied what 135 students thought about the flipped classroom after working with it for a semester. Her findings show that both the students’ and

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teachers’ opinion of the flipped classroom changed towards a more positive one after an adjustment period.

3. Data and Method

In this chapter, I will first explain the nature of the data. Secondly, a description of the procedure when selecting group and collecting data will be given. Thirdly, a detailed

explanation will be given of the lesson plan used in the classroom, and lastly the procedure for processing and analysing the data will be presented.

3.1. The Nature of the Data

For this study, two different sources were used when collecting the data: focus group discussions and a semi-structured interview. The data consists of multiple audio recordings. The participants in the focus group were both female and male students in secondary school at the ages of 15-16. There were two groups with four students in each group. The

semi-structured interview was carried out with one female teacher, who has 24 years of teaching experience in the subject of English. A pre-defined Discussion guide (see Appendix 1) and an

Interview guide for the interview (see Appendix 2) were prepared in order to improve the

quality of the discussions and interview. The interview with the teacher lasted 22 minutes, while the first focus group discussion with the students lasted 11 minutes and the second one 9 minutes.

3.2. The Procedure for Gathering the Data

This section is divided into four parts. The first describes the lesson plan, as both the discussion and the interview derive from that lesson. The second presents the focus discussions and the third describes the semi-structured interview. A justification of the recruitment of participants, choice of method and the recording process will be discussed in both cases. The last part is regarding the ethical principles and considerations guiding this study.

3.2.1. Lesson Plan and Implementation

The lesson plan (Appendix 3) was constructed in collaboration with the students’ regular teacher in English. The benefits of this were that the teacher knows what academic level each of the students is at and also what the students need to practice, which eased the development of the lesson plan.

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The lesson was 55 minutes long and the class consists of 28 students, 15 male and 13 female. The classroom has five tables which divided the students into five groups in which they usually do discussion exercises.

The essence of the flipped classroom is that the majority of information transfer happens outside of the classroom. Studies show that the flipped classroom is most effective when the teacher themselves record their own videos. However, research points out that teachers do not usually make their own videos as it is too time-consuming in the beginning, and would

therefore use already existing videos (Leis 2015:16; Evseeva & Solozhenko 2015:208). Therefore, in this study, five different already existing video clips were used, which

introduced different dialects and accents in English. The students received four questions to have in mind when they saw the video clips as homework.

The process of finding suitable videos was more time-consuming than the teacher and I had expected as the videos needed to be of sufficient length but also appropriate for the students in terms of what they were supposed to learn. Even though we selected five video clips ranging from 7-15 minutes, we still needed to construct a PowerPoint to cover some information gaps that were left. Furthermore, a considerable amount of time was then invested in constructing suitable follow-up questions both for the homework and for the next lesson, as the questions needed to reflect what the students had actually been told in the video clips and phrased so there would be no misunderstandings.

At the start of the lesson, the teacher noticed how many of the students had seen the video clips and those who had not seen them saw the clips during the lesson instead, and after that participated in the discussion and answered the pre-defined questions. This made the class a little unsettled as the students and the teacher did not have routines for what to do if the students had not seen the clips. The teacher had a short lecture with a PowerPoint because there were some information gaps left by the five video clips regarding English accents and dialects. After the lecture the students were supposed to discuss the questions (see Appendix 3) in their groups. The teacher acted as a facilitator and listened to the students and provided scaffolding when needed. However, some students finished the task ahead of the others, which resulted in them talking about other things and disturbing the rest of the class. Furthermore, the students who had not seen the clips were supposed to see them during the lesson, but even though they had headphones and sat at a separate table they still found it hard to concentrate on the video clips. This resulted in them walking around the classroom and the teacher having to remind them to watch the video clips instead of disrupting the other groups.

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At the end of the lesson the teacher asked the questions to the different groups to make sure that every group had understood.

3.2.2. Focus Group Discussion

I found focus group discussions to be a suitable method to use with students as participants in my study. One of the reasons for this is that focus group discussions have a tendency to be less stressful for students than a single-person interview as they are in a safe environment with peers. Another strength is that focus group discussions are a flexible method that combines elements from both interview and participant observation, as it allows the researcher to ask questions and observe how the group discuss the question (David & Sutton 2016:124). Focus group discussions, therefore, enable the interviewer to ask follow-up questions and acquire a deeper understanding of how the participants’ experienced the lesson through their

meaningful discussions.

The study was conducted in a private middle school and secondary school with roughly 500 students. The school is located in the southern part of Sweden and was chosen based on convenience as the school was willing to cooperate and because every student had their own computer provided by the school. There was one teacher who was willing to participate in the study and implement the flipped classroom method in her English classroom. The teacher had one group of ninth grade pupils which she teaches two times a week. The class consists of 28 students, 15 male and 13 female.

The group constellation is essential in focus group discussion. Therefore, I decided to put the groups together myself with that in mind. The participants for the focus group discussions were selected based upon the following guiding principles: attendance, ability spectrum, gender balance, how well they would work with the other participants and participants that would be willing to talk in the group. The participants needed to have attended the lesson and done their homework before the lesson in order to actively participate in the focus group discussion. I also chose students whose proficiency varies in English, in order to be sure to cover the whole ability spectrum and therefore obtain more reliable data. In each of the two focus groups four students were chosen to participate, both male and female to ensure that the results became as representative as possible. I chose participants that would feel comfortable sharing their thoughts with the group and participants between whom there were no obvious conflicts. However, there were 21 out of 28 students who attended the lesson and four out of those had not seen the video clips beforehand. Therefore, I decided to let the participants’ ability take priority over gender balance when selecting participants for the study.

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Before the focus group discussions started, the participants were encouraged to discuss the topic amongst themselves and not be afraid of sharing their thoughts with the group. The interviewer functions more as a “facilitator” or “director” in order to guide the discussion by the use of the pre-defined questions instead of trying to control the discussion. The goal was to allow the participants to discuss the topic naturally, discover new ideas together and try to highlight how the group experienced the lesson. Also, before proceeding with the next pre-defined question I made sure that the participants had nothing more to add, in order not to hinder or interrupt the ongoing discussion.

The focus group discussion took place at their school in the students’ home room. This was done to make the students feel more comfortable in an environment they knew (Björklund Larsen 2017). The students and interviewer were seated around a table with a smartphone placed in the middle to record the discussion. A short test recording took place at the start of the discussion to ensure that all participants were audible. Furthermore, all electronic devices were put in flight mode or turned off before the recording began. The discussions were recorded by the app called Röstinspelning, which is a pre-existing app on the smartphone used.

3.2.3. Qualitative Interview

I deemed qualitative interviews to be a suitable method when collecting the data on how the teacher experienced implementing the flipped classroom method. This was done because the aim of this study is to see how teachers experience the flipped classroom method and partly as this study has a clear and narrow aim. Bryman (2015:472) states that a semi-structured

interview is the most suitable method when the researcher has a clear focus and aims to investigate a narrow field.

A semi-structured interview is the most preferable choice of structure in this case as I had an interview guide with rather open questions. Therefore, I could deviate from and adapt to the conversation at hand. David and Sutton (2016:115) point out that question order may be changed or questions added depending on the answers provided by the interviewer as was the case in my interview. Furthermore, the lack of studies in a Swedish context raised the

question “how do teachers and students experience the implementation of the flipped

classroom method in English?” This question made the foundation of the interview guide and further questions were constructed with regard to basic elements, such as not asking leading questions or too narrow ones, presented by Bryman (2015: 473–474).

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The participant for the interview was selected due to her willingness to try the flipped classroom method in her classroom, both this and the fact that the school is close to where I live means that the method data collection could be described as convenience sampling (Bryman, 2015:201). However, despite elements of convenience sampling, the teacher fitted the profile well as she had over 24 years of teaching experience in the subject of English and taught at the level which this study aimed for. The interview was conducted in her home room at the school, something David and Sutton (2016) recommend to make the participant feel more comfortable. During the interview, a test recording was done to insure that the participants were audible, as the interviewer was seated opposite the interviewee. The interviewer encouraged the interviewee to talk freely regarding the topic in order to improve the flow of the interview instead of strictly following the interview guide. The interview was recorded the same way as the focus group discussion, by the use of a smartphone and the app

röstinspelning. 3.2.4. Ethical Principles

Ethical principles are issued in Sweden by the Swedish Research Council in order to maintain a good research practice. There are four core requirements to consider: use, consent,

confidentiality and information requirements (The Swedish Research Council, 2002). These

core requirements were taken into consideration when conducting this study. Therefore, a letter of consent explaining the study was sent home for both the parents (see Appendix 4) and students to sign, even though from a legal point of view, I did not need the parents’ signature as all of the students were above the age of 15. However, I felt that it was important to make sure that everyone involved, including the parents, were informed of what I was doing and why. A letter of consent was also given to the teacher to sign (see appendix 5). Before any of the data was recorded, I informed all participants that they had the right to cancel their participation any time during and after the recording, as well as having the right to listen to the recording.

In order to avoid invasion of their privacy all names were changed: the students, teacher and the name of the school. The students are thus named STU1-STU8 the teacher is called TEA to insure the participants’ anonymity.

3.3. The Procedure for Processing and Analysing the Data

The data was transcribed using basic transcription with standard orthography, as I was more interested in the participants’ utterances than how they spoke about the different subjects

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(Ochs 1979:45). However, short pauses were included by adding a comma to highlight a small break. Furthermore, all of the data was transcribed in order to ensure that no

information was missed from the interviews. I ended up with 19 pages of transcribed data. The phenomenographic analysis model was used when analysing the data (Dahlgren & Johansson 2009). The aim of this model is to describe the way in which people understand their surroundings and then compare them to see if there are any similarities or differences. Therefore, I deemed phenomenographic analysis a suitable approach as I wanted to analyse the perspective of the participants.

Phenomenographic analysis is divided into seven steps when analysing the data. The first step was to get familiar with the data by reading through it multiple times until I got a clear

overview of the data. The second step, condensation, is where the analysing process begins and I started selecting raw data which I found most significant and interesting for my thesis. This was done by printing out hard copies of the transcriptions that I later colour coded reoccurring keywords, in order to see what the participants brought up in the discussion. I started cutting out the selected parts in order to ease the process of grouping them in the later steps. The third step is where one searches for similarities and differences in the data,

according to the model. I had already marked out keywords which I now grouped together. Furthermore, I sorted the data separately between the different groups and teacher in order to compare them to each other. This process showed where the participants shared perceptions and where it varied.

Step four is where one divides the data into categories. This was done by creating mind maps of the keywords found: vocabulary, new, fun, reading, pronunciation, videos, student-centred, variation, home, school and homework. After the mind maps were done I started to put together lists with conclusions that could be drawn and supported them with quotations from the focus groups and interview. By structuring the data in this way, I was able to get an overview of the material. This led consequently to step five, where one articulates the main categories by dividing them into separate groups, based on how closely they are related to each other. The sixth step where one names the categories, was done by looking at the most prominent feature from each category, which resulted in the following three categories:

 using videos

 variation in teaching materials  the role of homework

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Lastly, step seven is where one once again investigates to see whether there are distinct differences between each category or whether some passages should be moved. However, I was satisfied with my findings and the three categories which will be presented in the following chapter.

4. Results

This chapter will present the three categories listed in the methodology chapter. Each category consists of several main points that are developed in the conversations. Furthermore, I decided to select quotations that illustrate the different points I wish to highlight in each section. Moreover, both my translation and the original version of every quotation are presented in order to make my analysis as transparent as possible.

4.1. Using Videos

In the data, one theme that was recurrent throughout the focus group discussions and interview was videos. It was brought up as a good alternative in order to vary the teaching method in the classroom. The main points that both the students and teacher agreed upon were that it was a fun activity and it was easier than reading. Moreover, the teacher also thought that the lesson became more student-centred, which will also be developed. These three main points will be developed further separately, starting with videos as something both the

students and teacher thought was fun.

Using video clips was brought up by the teacher as something she believed the students would think is fun and an easier way to learn.

Uhm, as I said before, I sometimes give them assignments to read texts in English on their own and and answer questions uhm, I have not worked loads with video clips but it is something the students might prefer, and um, think is a bit more fun and a bit easier for them […]

Ehm, som sagt tidigare, jag ger dom ibland uppgifter att läsa texter på engelska på egen hand och och svara på frågor ehm, jag har inte jobbat jättemycket med videoklipps men det är någonting som eleverna kanske föredrar, och eh, tycker det är lite roligare och lite enklare för dom... (T:61)

However, the teacher mentions that she has not used video clips much during her classes. In this quotation, the teacher also contrasts video clips to reading text and then answering questions. She thinks the students prefer videos as it is “a bit more fun and a bit easier” than

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reading and answering questions. However, this notion that watching videos is easier than reading will be further developed later in the text.

The teacher also points out that by using video clips one can create assignments that are close to the students, as students “like to watch film and YouTube clips, and that is what they do during their spare time and you might exploit that to do something, um, useful in school, maybe more than we’ve done so far”(“gillar ju att titta på film och, och Youtube klipps, och

och det är det dom gör på fritiden så man kanske skulle kunna, eh, utnyttja det till att göra någonting, ehh, vettigt då det gäller skolarbete också lite mer, kanske man hade gjort hitintills egentligen”) (T:59). This could be one explanation why the students were positive to videos

as alternative teaching materials in English, according to the teacher. The students also point out: that “hm, we usually never watch any videos or things like that with the ordinary, um ordinary teachers, and stuff” (“hm, vi brukar typ aldrig se på några videos eller så med dom

vanliga, eh vanliga lärarna, och så”) (STU4:67). This suggests that videos are not something

the students usually get to see in their classroom no matter what the subject. Moreover, as student 1 explains: “I thought it was interesting because we do not usually do things like this, so it was fun to do something new” (“jag tyckte det var intressant för vi brukar inte göra

något sånt här, så det var roligt att göra något nytt”) (STU1:66). Furthermore, student 4

points out: “yes we do the same thing all the time, so doing things differently is a bit fun” (“jo

vi gör samma sak hela tiden, så det är lite kul med lite annorlunda”) (STU4:73). Watching

video clips as something new together with the word “fun” was brought up by the students numerous times often without the probing of the interviewer. This suggests that the students were positive to this teaching medium as it was something new and the students appreciate variation in their classroom.

The second main point that was brought up by the students and teacher was that watching video clips was easier than reading a text. Student 5 points out that watching videos instead of reading made the assignment easier and more manageable:

Yeah, well it wasn’t that much you had to do, you just had to watch the films it was like, it was like more fun to watch the films and then answer questions, instead for example reading and answering questions, because reading is like a bit more difficult. But watching the films made the assignment easier.

Ah, asså det var inte så mycket man skulle göra, asså man skulle bara titta på filmerna det var liksom, det är liksom roligt att titta på filmer och sen svara på

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frågor, istället exempel för att läsa och svara på frågor, för att läsa det är liksom lite svårare. Men att se filmen det gjorde uppgiften lättare. (STU5:66)

The teacher also reached this conclusion as watching clips made the assignment: “a bit more fun and a bit easier for them” (“lite roligare och lite enklare för dom”) (T:61). Furthermore, the students and teacher described some benefits of watching videos such as being able to both see and hear the person speaking, it being easier to go back or watch the clip multiple times in case they missed something and watching video clips enabled them to hear how to pronounce words. These benefits are closely related to what video clips are as a medium and that it is the medium itself that wrought these benefits. The students, however, did not reflect on this and point out the benefits from their point of view, for instance student 1 puts it like this: “so it’s good to make a change from books that you read, so that you hear sort of when they speak because then you also learn how to pronounce words” (“alltså det är bra att

variera från böcker som man läser, tills man hör såhär när dom pratar för då lär man sig hur man ja uttalar ord”) (STU1:87). This quotation highlights the benefit of hearing how to

pronounce words. Student 4 claimed that it was easier to both see and listen to the person speaking: “well, it’s easier than when you read a text, like listen to, or I think it’s easier to listen and see when someone’s talking instead of only reading through a text” (“hm, alltså, det

är lättare än att man ska läsa in en text bara, alltså att lyssna på, eller jag tycker det är lättare att lyssna och se när någon pratar än att bara läsa igenom en text”) (STU4:35).

Lastly, student 6 that felt it was: “easier to go back to see if you missed anything in the film than in a text” (“lättare att gå tillbaka att se om man missade något sen så här i filmen än i

text”) (STU6:67).

Moreover, student 8 discussed the usefulness of watching the video clips compared to reading: “yes, well, you don’t always benefit from working with textbooks later in life, like it’s, it’s good, for example, that you know different, that there are different English

pronunciations for example, when you are on vacation and things like that”(“ja, asså, man

har inte alltid nytta av att jobba med läroböckerna senare i livet liksom utan det, det är bra till exempel att man kan olika, att det finns olika engelska uttal till exempel, när man är på semester och sånt”) (STU8:101). Student 8 felt that the videos were more useful and

something that could connect to a real life situation. Furthermore, student 4 brought up that they were more exposed to English by watching video clips: “yes, well it was like more speaking, well we watched the videos and talked then discussed verbally, otherwise we usually get to read in a book and then write and answer questions, well now we got to hear

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more English, which I thought was good”(“jo alltså det var ju mer typ muntligt, alltså vi

kollade på videosarna och prata sen diskuterade vi muntligt, annars brukar vi få läsa i en bok och sen skriva och svara, alltså nu hörde vi mer alltså mer engelska, vilket jag tyckte var bra”) (STU4:110).

The last main point regarding video clips was that the teacher felt that the teaching approach became more student-centred. The teacher raises the notion of student-centeredness without the guidance of the interviewer:

Um, yes, I think that it’s fun like to just work with video clips um, a little bit more than we, we work pretty much with texts and listening to English but working with video clips I think is something I think, something which the students um, appreciate really. It makes it, them, them student-centred assignments.

Eh, ja jag tycker det är roligt liksom att just jobba med filmklipp eh, lite mer än man, man jobbar ju ganska mycket med texter och med att lyssna engelska men att jobba med filmklipp tycker jag är någonting som eleverna eh, uppskattar egentligen. Det är den, dom, dom elevnära uppgifter. (T:77)

The teacher explains that she thought this way because “they, like watching videos and, and Youtube clips, and and that is something they do during their spare time so you maybe could, um, make use of that to do something um, useful when it comes to school assignments too a little bit more, than I might have done up until now“ (”dom, gillar ju att på film och, och

Youtube klipps, och och det är det dom gör på fritiden så man kanske skulle kunna, eh, utnyttja det till att göra någonting, eh, vettigt då det gäller skolarbete också lite mer, kanske man hade gjort hitintills egentligen”) (T:59). The quotation also illustrates that the teacher

thought that connecting to what the students usually do during their spare time makes teaching more fun and student-centred.

4.2. Variation in Teaching Materials

The second theme that was brought up was variation, more specifically how one might vary the teaching materials and approach. The main points that will be developed in this section are the teacher’s and students’ conflicting views on the English lessons and the teacher’s and students’ thoughts on variation.

The first main point to be developed is the teacher’s and students’ different views on variation in their English classes. In this first paragraph, I will first develop the students’ perspective.

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The students express that the teaching materials and approach are rather monotonous, as student 2 mentions: “it was like, as you say interesting because we usually work with books and so on but now like for the first time in several months we watched videos“ (“det var ju,

som du säger intressant för oftast brukar vi hålla på med böcker och så vidare men nu typ för första gången på flera månader vi kollar på videos”) (STU2:71). This is further supported by

student 5: “yes, well we usually work with textbooks like so this was something new for us” (“ja, asså vi jobbade mest med läroböcker liksom så det var något nytt för oss”) (STU5:89). These two citations illustrate how the students experience the lack of variation in their English classes. Furthermore, as student 4 points out: “yes we do the same thing all the time, so doing things differently is a bit fun” (“jo vi gör samma sak hela tiden, så det är lite kul med lite

annorlunda”) (STU4:73). These quotations point out that the students think it more fun if

there is variation in their teaching materials but also that they compare watching video clips to reading and working with textbooks.

In this second section, the teacher’s perspective will be developed. The teacher explains that her lessons are varied, as can be seen:

Um, it is a bit varied, I have a class which is fairly, where there are many who are fairly weak at English and some who are quite talented. Um so I try to vary things, we maybe start with some discussion question, um, where they, um get to discuss in their groups and um, after that, um, usually we work maybe with some text which they get to listen to or read and things like that, um, we work with, um, vocabulary word knowledge, um, maybe some grammar, um, write a bit too that we work with. Um, so you try to vary things and work with several things during a lesson.

Eh, det är lite varierat, jag har en klass som är ganska.. där det finns många som är ganska svaga i engelska och en del som är rätt duktiga. Eh så jag försöker variera, vi börjar ju med kanske någon diskussion fråga, eh där dom, eh får diskutera i sina grupper och eh, därefter, eh, vanligtvis jobba vi kanske med någon text som dom får lyssna eller läsa och så, öhm, jobbar man med, öhm ord och kunskap, öhm kanske lite med grammatik, öhm, skriva lite också kan hända att man jobbar med. Öhm, så det är man försöker variera sig och jobba med flera saker på en lektion. (T:15)

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The teacher develops how she varies her English classes as she incorporates different kinds of teaching materials and exercises in each lesson. However, the students point out that even though it seems that there is variation during the lessons, the lessons themselves are the same, which makes the teaching repetitive. Moreover, the students do not bring up that they usually discuss things during their lessons in contrast to what the teacher says.

The second main point will first be developed from the teacher’s perspective. The teacher explains that because there are a number of weaker students in the class she focused on reading and listening comprehension.

Because this is a weak class right now in this class, both listening and reading comprehension take most hm, take most time hm, that is because, they do not have, they must have a foundation to stand on, it is hard to discuss if you don’t have sufficient, um, vocabulary and not, um, really can, um, structure sentences and, um, manage to tell something on their own, so it’s mostly those bits we have worked with and actually, uhm, we have worked more with speaking as of late, because they will have, a national test, um, in year nine, uhm, a part of each lesson am I trying to have um, discussion in groups.

Eftersom det är en svag klass just i den här klassen tar mest eh, både hör och läsförståelse tar mest tid, hm, för att det är, eh, för att dom, dom har inte, dom måste ju ha grunden att stå på, det är svårt att diskutera om man inte har tillräckligt, eh, stort ordförråd och inte, ehh, kan egentligen, Eh, bygga upp meningar och, eh, klara av liksom att berätta om någonting själv på egen hand, så det är mest dom bitarna som vi jobbar med faktiskt.. ehm, det här muntliga hade vi jobbat med lite mer på, på sistone, för att det liksom kommer vi att ta.. ha muntliga nationella prov, eh, i årskurs nio, ehm, men lite på varje lektion försöker jag liksom ha eh, diskussionerna i grupper. (T:55)

It seems the teacher has lowered and adjusted the difficulty level of the lesson to build a foundation for the weak students, which means less variation in the English classes. Moreover, the teacher discussed that: “in this class almost half of the students don’t have a pass grade in English” (“i den här klassen är det nästan hälften av eleverna som inte är

godkända i engelska”) (T:51), which affects how she plans her lessons.

The students, however, thought variation in their lessons was fun and it is good to vary instead of doing the same things repeatedly as student 6 states: “it is good like to change and

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maybe have both” (“det är bra såhär att byta av och ha båda kanske”) (STU6:99). The students are positive towards more variation in their English classes as they thought it was a fun activity watching video clips instead of reading. Furthermore, even though watching video clips at home before the lesson was something new. The students embraced it as student 1 states: “because it was new, we have not done this before so then it’s more fun to test

something” (“för att det var ju nytt, vi har inte gjort det här förut så då är det ju roligare att

testa på något”) (STU1:124).

4.3. The Role of Homework

The last theme that was brought up was the role of homework. Hence, in this section the main points the students and teacher discussed and agreed upon will be developed, which were: level of difficulty, vocabulary learning and problems one might face when working with homework.

The first topic to be developed is the teacher’s and students’ thoughts about the level of difficulty regarding their homework. The teacher believes that the students should manage to complete the homework she gives them in 30-60 minutes “without the parents helping” (“utan

att föräldrarna hjälper till”) (T:41). According to the teacher the level of difficulty should be:

“just challenging enough I think, some [students] might demand a bit more time than the others” (“lagom utmanande tycker jag, en del kanske kräver lite mer tid än dom andra”) (T:43). The students also agreed as they felt that: “well, there is some [homework] that is more challenging than others” (“asså det finns några som är svårare än andra”) (STU6:122), but none of the students felt the need to seek help from a parent to manage their homework. Moreover, the teacher’s goal with homework was to expose the students to more English as she felt that two lessons a week was too little if every student is to reach the goals in English that are stated in the curriculum. As previously mentioned, the teacher says that almost half the students do not have a pass grade in the subject of English, which is why she focused on reading and listening comprehension, but the teacher feels that it is not enough if every student in her class is to finish school with a pass grade in English. Therefore, the teacher says: “um, yes the time, could have been a bit longer, for some, at least for some students who have trouble with English” (“eh, ja tiden, skulle kanske kunnat blivit lite längre, för en,

åtminstone för en del elever som har svårt med engelskan”) (T:51). The teacher feels that

homework is essential in order to expose the student to more English due to the lack of time in the classroom, as she explains: “As I said we only have two lessons each week so we don’t manage to get through so, so very much therefore I think that the students have to work a bit

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at home too” (“som sagt vi har ju bara två lektioner i veckan så vi hinner inte så, med så

jättemycket utan jag anser att eleverna måste jobba lite hemma också”) (T:37).

The second main point is vocabulary learning. The students had weekly homework, ranging from reading a text, to grammar exercises and vocabulary learning. The reason for this is explained by the teacher as: “um, but those who do their homework, develop a bit better than those who don’t do it” (“eh, men dom som gör läxorna dom, utvecklas lite bättre än dom

andra som inte gör det”) (T:37). This notion is further supported by the students, who express

that vocabulary learning is the most beneficial homework, as student 4 puts it:

Hm, well it feels like vocabulary learning is the one you might learn the most from than like when we’re supposed to answer some questions or write a short text, it feels like you are learning more with vocabulary learning because you learn specific words.

Hm, alltså det känns ju som glosorna lär man sig kanske mest av än typ mer än när vi ska svara på några frågor eller typ skriva en liten text, det känns som man lär sig mer på glosorna för då lär man sig specifika ord. (STU4:157)

The students seem to experience the benefit of vocabulary learning more than reading and answering questions. However, student 4 also brings up that they feel vocabulary learning is stressful: “well, like vocabulary learning is a bit harder as it’s stressful all the time because you could always practice more sort of” (“typ, det är lite svårare med typ glosor och så utan

då är det liksom en stressande sak hela tiden för man kan alltid öva mer typ”)

(STU4:140).One explanation as to why she brings up that she “really do[es]n’t like homework” (“gillar jag inte läxor“) (STU4:178). Furthermore, even though the students express the benefits of homework they would still like to avoid having homework, partly because of time constraints as student 7 points outs: “well you don’t always have time” (“asså

man har inte tid alltid”) (STU7:105). Student 4 discussed that it is because of the workload:

“we have many subjects, all the time and then we get vocabulary learning or like tables and stuff like that that you have to yeah like revise, so that’s maybe what you can do, but maybe not every week” (“vi har ju många ämnen, alltså hela tiden och sen att vi får glosor och typ

tabeller och sånt måste man ju typ eh ja typ repetera, så det kanske man kan, men kanske inte varje vecka”) (STU4:185).This moves us on to the last main point.

The last main point was problems one might face when working with homework. In this section I will first develop the teachers’ perspective. The teacher expressed that homework is

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essential in order to expose the students to a greater extent to English and to achieve the goals in the curriculum. However, she is aware that: “the students are not very fond of doing

homework and that is like, the biggest disadvantage is that some don’t do their homework and then they get a negative uh experience out of it, and that’s not good” (“eleverna är inte så

jättepigga att jobba med läxor och det är liksom, största nackdelen är att en del inte gör sina läxor och då blir det negativt, eh, upplevelse av det hela, och det är inte bra”) (T:37).

Homework is, therefore, essential but problematic according to the teacher, even more so when one tries to construct class activities based on homework as if the students have not done their homework the lesson might fail. Therefore, the teacher would rather see the video clips during lessons in order to make sure that every student has had the opportunity as she explains:

Uhm, I would probably, um, do it like we, uhm, watch the films together, um in the classroom, uhm and that the students maybe prepare for the discussions as homework after that, um, and that would probably be beneficial even, um, if they haven’t done their homework then they’ll at least have seen the films and know what the rest are talking about, um, so I think, that would help a bit.

Ehm, jag skulle nog, eh, göra så att vi kanske.. ehm, titta på filmen tillsammans, eh i klassrummet, ehm och att eleverna kanske får i läxa att förbereda sig för diskussionerna därefter, eh och då skulle dom liksom underlätta även, eh, om man inte gör den läxan så har man ändå sett filmen och vet vad man pratar om, eh, så det tror jag, det kanske skulle underlätta lite. (T:73)

From the students’ perspective, however, 2 out of 8 students felt that it would be better to see the video clips in school instead of at home. Student 8 would rather see the video clips in school in case: “there’s something we don’t understand we can ask the teacher” (“för att om

det finns något vi inte förstår så kan vi fråga läraren”) (STU8:44). Student 3’s reason was:

“because I also need time at home to do other stuff” (“för jag ska också ha tid hemma och

göra något annan sak”) (STU3:51). Furthermore, both student 8 and student 3 have barely a

pass grade in English and would therefore also prefer the assistance that the teacher can provide. Nevertheless, the students brought up multiple benefits of watching the video clips at home such as student 1 who felt that: “one advantage is that you can concentrate on the video clips, instead of, like watching what the others do or talk to them” (“en fördel är att man kan

koncentrera sig mer på videoklippen, så här istället för att, amen typ kollar vad dom andra gör eller att prata med dom”) (STU1:40). Student 8 felt that: “you could understand more

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too” (“man kunde förstå mer också”) (STU8:32). Student 5 felt that “Well I thought this was good, because at home you’re like calm and you can take it easy and you don’t need to stress because you like got a lot of time and, um, yeah, so it was good sort of, you could do it from home” (“asså jag tyckte det var bra, för hemma är man liksom lugn och man kan ta det lugnt

och man behöver liksom inte stressa sig man har all tid på sig och, eh, ah, så det var bra liksom, man kunde göra det hemifrån”) (STU5:31). Consequently, these benefits highlight

some advantages of working at home but also point out that it seems stressful in school according to student 5 and harder to concentrate during English classes. The students in group 2 also raised this issue as they felt that some students are passive and do not participate in the lesson because they have not done their homework. Student 6’s and student 5’s description of the discussion that happened during the lesson is the following: “Some didn’t like want to join in and talk” (“några ville asså inte vara med och prata”) (STU6:49) and “most had not done it [their homework] (“dom flesta hade inte gjort den liksom”) (STU5:50). Student 5 says: “well I think it depends on what kind of student you are, if you are the sort that takes like responsibility and does your homework it will go well at home but those who don’t take responsibility, it’s better to do it in school” (“asså jag tycker det beror på vilken typ av elev

man är, asså är man den som tar ansvar och gör sina läxor så går det bra hemma men dom som inte tar liksom ansvar, det är bättre att göra i skolan”) (STU5:57). Student 5 points out

an important aspect of teaching that it should adapt to the students who are taught in order to achieve the best results.

5. Discussion and Conclusions

In this chapter, the findings in the result chapter will be used in order to draw conclusions based on the research questions guiding this study, namely: How did the students and teacher experience the flipped classroom as a teaching approach? What elements are important to bear in mind when implementing the flipped classroom? The research questions will be discussed based on each of the principles of the flipped classroom method which are the following: understanding that homework is essential, finding suitable materials for homework, constructing a suitable follow-up lesson, adjusting to students’ level and working continuously with the method. Lastly, limitations and future research will be discussed.

5.1. Understanding that Homework is Essential

The essence of the flipped classroom is to actually flip the teacher-led briefings to outside of the classroom to free more time in the classroom. By flipping the teacher-led briefings one also flips where the higher level cognitive activities take place as can be seen in Figure 1,

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which was discussed with reference to Correa (2015:121) and Kvashnina and Marynko (2016:71) previously. The benefit this brings is that the students will have more face-to-face time with the teacher and can process what they have learned during classes instead of home. However, one disadvantage that became visible when conducting this study was when the students did not do their homework. The students had to instead see the video clips during the lesson, which causes some unrest in the class, and the students who had not seen the video clips did not benefit from the flipped classroom as much as the rest. However, Correa (2015:122) addresses this and highlights that this would be the same with regular homework that the students who do their homework benefit more and the problem still remains how the teacher manages to inspire the students to do their homework.

5.2. Finding Suitable Materials for Homework

One conclusion that can be drawn is that implementing the flipped classroom is very time-consuming as a great deal of time was spent finding suitable video clips that could be used. This finding aligns with what previous research has also concluded (Evseeva & Solozhenko 2015:4; Correa 2015:112; Mehring 2016). However, this was the case in this study when choosing already existing video clips instead of creating them oneself.

The teacher’s and students’ experience regarding suitable materials for homework was mostly confined to what video clips are as a medium. The results shows that the students felt that what they did could be useful for them outside of the school context, primarily being able to hear how to pronounce words as the people in the video clips were native English speakers. Therefore, depending on what video clips are used the students can reap benefits differently. Nevertheless, these benefits are related to what advantages videos clips bring as a medium compared to reading a text. Kasapoglu-Akyol (2010:227) discussed that reading is more difficult and burdensome when it comes to L2, which is why students lose motivation and find it more difficult. This is further supported by Mehring (2016:7) who states that: “students get frustrated when reading alone because they either read too slowly, cannot comprehend what they are reading, or lose interest in the text.” Therefore, the students could benefit from using video clips in their English classes.

Futhermore, the results point out that using video clips in their English classes was something the students thought of as fun. However, as seen in the results this was mainly because the students experienced it as something new. Therefore, one can argue that when the students become accustomed to watching video clips their motivation will decline. Hao (2016:302) noticed this in his research, when the flipped classroom was implemented in a middle school

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in Taiwan. The study shows that motivation declined initially when the flipped classroom was implemented as it is something new which the students were not accustomed to. However, this was not the case in this study. One might argue that one reason for this could be the culture differences between Taiwan and Sweden. Nevertheless, even though the motivation flipped classroom wrought as something new might decline, an additional teaching approach has still been introduced which contributed to more variation in their English classes. Being able to vary the lessons and adapt to the students’ needs is an important component when teaching according to Marsh (2012:3).

5.3. Constructing Suitable Follow-up Lesson

Finding suitable video clips and planning the next coming lesson were the two steps that required the most time in this study. Suitable questions and materials had to be prepared beforehand to match the content of the video clips and provide the materials to fill in any gaps. A great amount of time was invested in this step, as previous research points out the importance of a well-planned lesson in order to free more time in the classroom to be used in an effective way (Leis 2015:15; Basal 2015:31; Segolsson et al. 2017:84). The students noted this and explained that they felt that they were more active and got to talk more during the lesson.

However, the teacher also expressed concern when it came to the flipped classroom’s idea that the students should watch the video clips at home and then base the next lesson on that. She felt that the students who had not done their homework would be passive during the lesson. Correa (2015:122) recommends that the students who have not done their homework watch it during the lesson and work with the questions as homework so that the lesson can continue, and for the next time one has to remind the students to do their homework.

Nevertheless, the teacher felt that it would be better to watch the video clips at school and let the students work with the questions at home in order to make sure that every student has seen the video clips. One could therefore argue that even though the teacher expressed that she was going to continue using the flipped classroom, she might not be using the flipped classroom as nothing is flipped.

5.4. Adjusting to the Students’ Level/Ability

Adjusting one’s teaching to suit every student is a challenge for every teacher no matter what the subject. One needs to carefully consider whether the flipped classroom is suitable for one’s class. This became evident during this study also, as the students commented that some students did not participate during the lesson and the teacher expressed concern that the

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assignment might have been too hard afterwards. Segolsson et al. (2017:84) point out in their findings that the flipped classroom is not beneficial for every student, and some students would benefit more from a traditional classroom instead. However, due to the limitations of this study it is hard to draw any conclusions as to whether that was the case.

5.5. Working Continuously with the Method

The results of this study showed that the students were positive towards the flipped classroom approach or at least some elements that constitute the flipped classroom, as they experienced it as fun and easier compared to how they usually work. Therefore, as mentioned, the teacher is planning to continue using elements of the flipped classroom in her teaching as she felt it would be wasteful not to continue with the method, which the students have been introduced to. However, the teacher also mentions that she would prefer to watch the video clips in class instead, but then nothing would be flipped and the main benefit of the flipped classroom would be lost. One reason for her unwillingness to flip could be the uncertainites associated with change, as she has to adjust to a new role in the classroom and develop new routines. The students’ positive attitude toward the flipped classroom could be because it was

something new and different from their usual English classes and therefore it might decline when they become used to it. However, the findings of Segolsson et al. (2017: 84–85) and Webb (2014:74) illustrate that the students’ motivation and attitude towards the flipped classroom should rise after an adjustment period. This is probably the case as the students by that time know what is expected of them and the teacher has developed routines on how to work efficiently with the flipped classroom. For future research this could be an interesting aspect to look into as this research was limited to one lesson.

5.6. Limitations and Future Research

This study is only based on two focus groups, one semi-structured interview and on one lesson, which limited the conclusions that can be drawn. Furthermore, the conclusions drawn cannot be generalised on a larger scale because of this. Moreover, the research area is quite limited, especially studies that were conducted in Sweden or carried out at the right

educational level as this thesis, which posed some difficulties when searching for empirical studies that were suitable for this study. In accordance with these limitations, a suggestion for further research is firstly to carry out research in secondary school in Sweden. Secondly, one could do a large-scale investigation with more participants from different areas in Sweden. Thirdly, longitudinal studies are needed that investigate the flipped classroom over a longer

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26

period of time, which would lead to filling the research gap when it comes to whether the flipped classroom method is a suitable teaching approach in Sweden.

References

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