Flipped Classrooms

In class this week my group and I are responsible for leading the discussion based upon flipped classroom.  Flipped classrooms are where instead of introducing new materials during a classroom lecture, the teacher records a video explaining key terms and concepts that students watch before coming to class.  The students can watch the video as many times as needed until the grasp the concept and are ready to implement it.  With lectures being done outside of class, more classroom time can now be spent using the information on classroom activities.  The concept has been around for many years and with different modifications but has tried to keep the teacher more as a learning guide rather a lecturer.

In second language acquisition I think flipped classrooms are useful.  L2 learn at varying rates so allowing a re-playable video would help students be on the same page.  The videos would also allow students to spend valuable class time speaking and listening rather than just listening to the native speaker lecture.  My students writing available is probably at an intermediate level but some have trouble putting a proper sentence together out loud.  The students could spend the class time applying all the things they learned in the video and work to even out their speaking and listening ability.

I have really enjoyed learning more about flipped classroom and am hopeful of finding information about using this concept towards language learning.