Academic writing in the flipped EFL classroom: A case study on student engagement in Oman

Abstract

During the last few years flipped classrooms have aimed to provide more authentic forms of student engagement in which learners have greater opportunity to utilise classroom time more effectively. This chapter reports on a preliminary study conducted in a private higher education institution in Oman involving 16 students enrolled in Level 3 of the English GFP (General Foundation program). It investigated the effect of the flipped model on the engagement of EFL (English as Foreign Language) learners in writing skills, focusing specifically on their cognitive, behavioural, emotional, and agentic levels of engagement. Students’ self-report questionnaires and focus group interviews were used in a mixed methods approach. The results revealed that students’ overall level of behavioural and emotional engagement was closely related to their cognitive engagement and agency. The chapter calls for more research on the flipped classroom in relation to writing skills as well as the need to identify strategies to help with the extra non-classroom activities required of them.