Alejandra Castellanos, Department of Spanish and Portuguese
Tell me and I will forget; teach me and I will
remember; involve me and I will learn
Chinese proverb
At the end of a first week in intermediate Spanish, a student emailed me complaining that she wasn’t learning. My teaching style, using the flipped classroom, was certainly not helping her. To illustrate, this consisted of students studying grammar at home and practicing it in class in a series of communicative activities. In short, she asked me to explain the grammar in class and let them practice it in handouts, also during class.
Therefore, this article is an introduction to the educational strategy called flipped classroom. It is aimed at students who doubt or are not aware of their active and decisive participation in their own learning.
Flipped Classroom
In my practice as an instructor, grammar is studied individually by students outside the classroom. For instance, they read and study the textbook, complete online activities, and watch videos from the textbook and from YouTube. Meanwhile, classroom activities are devoted to fulfilling practical communicative tasks. For Arena Evseeva and Anton Solozhenko, a language class that uses the flipped classroom not only improves academic performance, it also increases motivation and interest for studying foreign languages.
Language Learning
If learning a language is being able to communicate in that language, and not memorizing grammar, learners should engage in communicative activities. In this sense, as James Lee and Bill VanPatten assert, the work of instructors is not to teach, but to create conditions in which learners can acquire language. That is why the flipped classroom is the best educational strategy to learn a language.
Regarding the learning of grammar, Klaus Brandl argues that in a student-centered approach, it is better if learners formulate their own hypothesis about rules. Learners process rules in a deeper level when they discover the patterns by themselves.
Flipping Class and Second Language Acquisition Example
After studying for the first time the present of the indicative at home, in class they practice, in pairs, the conjugation with different personal pronouns. The two learners match the following columns:
Tú, tu compañero (amigo) o ambos (You, your partner or both):
| Comparison | Advantages | Chanllenges |
|---|---|---|
| Synchronous online lecture | Help maintain course momentum by delivering existing material remotely. Real-time communication fosters engagement and collaboration. Live sessions allow instructors to monitor students’ needs and provide immediate care, support, and accommodations. Less time-consuming to prepare a live lecture online allowing instructors to focus on student support. | Limited access to a proper environment, equipment, or reliable internet may hinder participation. Time zones, caregiving duties, or personal obligations can make attendance difficult for some students. Technical issues or platform outages can disrupt the lecture. Keeping students focused and engaged online is often more challenging than in-person teaching. |
| Pre-recorded lecture | Provides content similar to in-person lectures, ensuring continuity. Content is accessible after disruptions, allowing students to review at their own pace. The instructors can also repurpose them for other instructional purposes. Instructors can address the emergency and ad hoc support student wellness in the video. | It can be time-consuming. Students or instructors may lack the necessary environment, equipment, or internet access to record or watch the videos. Learning experiences may vary due to an individual's learning styles, prior knowledge, and the level of disruption. Lack of real-time interaction limits opportunities for immediate clarification. |
| Alternative assignments for lecture replacement (Self-paced asynchronous learning) | Provides flexibility and accommodations, ensuring learning continues during disruptions. Saves instructors time, allowing them to focus on designing assessments and exercises that support learning. Offers diverse learning options for students with varying needs. | Learning experiences may differ depending on students' individual situations. Some activities, like labs or seminars, may be hard to replace with alternative assignments. Alternative assignments may not engage students as effectively as live lectures or discussions. Designing fair and effective assignments for all students can be challenging. |
With this activity, learners deduce that the conjugation of the verbs is modified according to the person who executes the action. Following this activity, learners can create more sentences and share them in class.
Advantages
To emphasize, some advantages of this method include the (Kamo Chilingaryan and Ekaterina Zvereva):
- increase of learner autonomy and responsibility,
- possibility of each student of progressing at their pace
- possibility of catching up on a missed class
- increase of learner’s motivation
- improvement of classroom atmosphere
But most important is that when participating in foreign language communicative activities, students not only learn a language, they simultaneously learn how to be a competent member of the classroom. That is, they are involved effectively in a tacit process of socialization, an ability that is and will be useful in their personal and professional life.
Finally, it is important to bear in mind that sometimes, at the request of the students or when the instructor notices difficulties in carrying out the activity, it is necessary to explain some grammar in class. This will not take much time and the class can continue with more practice.
References
Klaus Brandl. Communicative Language Teaching in Action. Pearson (2008).
Lee, James F. and Bill Vanpatten. Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen. McGraw-Hill, 2003.
Matthew Mahavongtrakul edited this post on June 13th, 2019.