The Flipped EFL Classroom, an Innovative Educational Trend Case of Master’s 2 EFL students, at the department of English, University of Bejaia

Abstract

There are continuous and drastic researches conducted to improve and develop the quality of
education in the Algerian schools in general and in the higher education in particular since we
have witnessed great reforms with an eye to catch up with the global educational systems and
gain mobility skills in the tools that vehicle purposeful communications as well as in the
teaching/learning management contents. There is however, one problem that is frequently
highlighted: spoon-feeding. There are certain subjects like philosophy and literature that
require the memorization of quotes. Therefore, effective and appropriate learning does come
in handy for students at times. Moreover, spoon-feeding through notes provided by the tutors
does not do our EFL students any favors. It treats them as handicapped people presenting
blank minds needing and expecting their teachers to fill with their knowledge. Spoon-feeding,
according to us, is totally never justified in any of its forms as there is constantly more to
learn. Accordingly and on the structured reforms paths, we, as practitioners, assert that in any
given contexts, the prior measures to take is to develop in our EFL students autonomous
learning as learner autonomy has been a recurring theme in language teaching and learning
for a long period now. To scrutinize our EFL learners’ perceptions and expectations
concerning their readiness to practice autonomy, the paper at hand elicited data from our
Master’s students and teachers at the department of English, University of Bejaia through a
questionnaire, semi structured interviews, and an experiment related to the innovative EFL
trend embedded in inversed or flipped classes which lasted a whole semester. The results reveal that there is a serious gap between learners’ consciousness of autonomous learning and their actual practice in the classroom. Learners perceived themselves to be motivated, resorted to their teacher as a source of knowledge and believed that teachers should raise their awareness towards practicing autonomy. Furthermore, the participants voiced their agreement regarding practicing autonomy under the strategy of the flipped class as the efforts done to manage the classroom and present the knowledge in addition to the constructive debates following the presentation, they gradually over passed the constraints they faced while documenting and covering the home works assigned.