Preliminary Study of
Flipped English Courses for EFL Learners
Using ALC Net Academy 2 and YouTube
Hiroe TANAKA
Abstract
This case study describes the implementation and effects of a flipped class in an English
curriculum at a Japanese university in the second semester of 2015. The new approach was incorporated
into English courses with the aim of improving studentsʼ English proficiency so as to enhance their
TOEIC reading scores. In the flipped course, the students (N = 34) were required to study materials
before coming to each class. To help students understand English grammar, the instructor createdoriginal materials in Japanese using PowerPoint and a digital camera. The videos were uploaded toYouTube with their URLs distributed through Google Plus. The lecture videos directed students topractice off campus, where they could access ALC Net Academy 2 by logging in and studying
individually. These videos, such as how to pronounce new English vocabulary, accompanied thereading materials for each class and thus encouraged the students to read English materials in theclassroom. The monitoring system of ALC Net Academy 2 showed that students logged in and studied
English using the software an average of 56 minutes each per day. The result of an end-of-course survey
revealed that studentsʼ perceptions and attitudes toward the flipped course were overall favorable.
Keywords: EFL, Flipped class, ALC Net Academy2Introduction
This paper describes a case study of flipping methodology, and its outcome, that had been
implemented in an English class, “English Seminar V,” Japanese name, Eigo Ensyu Five, which was arequired general English subject at the university where the researcher taught the 15-week class in2015. There are three objectives in this study. First, the study shows some findings relating to theresearcherʼs flipped course, a general English course for Japanese university students. Secondly, thisstudy explores whether the class-flipping model is applicable for preparing English courses for Japanese
university students. Finally, this is a pilot study for following flipped course conducted by the researcher.
Definition
Inoue (2014) defined a flipped class as a new active learning methodology that moves
traditional lectures from the classroom and uses technology to place them on videos created by− 167 −長崎県立大学国際社会学部研究紀要

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instructors, students watch out-of-classroom. Figure 1 shows a representation of the Revised BloomʼsTaxonomy, a cognitive model that has been used to promote higher forms of thinking in education
revised by Anderson and Krathwohl (2001). At the bottom of the triangle is “remembering,” and going
upwards are higher cognitive levels of “understanding,” “applying,” “analyzing,” “evaluating,” and“creating.” In a flipped model, two of these six factors, “remembering” and “understanding,” pertain
to viewing videos out-of-class, which allows learners to study at their own pace (Inoue, 2014). In theclassroom, teachers provide activities that involve the other four factors and are based on knowledge
that students have acquired through their out-of-class activities. These activities include bothcollaborative and independent exercises (Shibaike and Nakanishi, 2014).

Figure 1.
The Revised Bloomʼs Taxonomy
Background
Since 2013, when the university implemented a new general English curriculum, all students
who take English under a foreign language program have been required to take general English courses
named English Seminar Ⅱ–VIII [Eigo Ensyu I–VIII]. Each course has a minimum passing score asmeasured on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC). In the 2015 academicyear, each student received one credit for passing each of the course. During that same year, teachers
were asked to consider the following three points when designing the course: the limited class time to− 168 −Hiroe TANAKA：Preliminary Study of Flipped English Courses for EFL Learners Using ALC Net Academy 2 and YouTube

prepare for the TOEIC examination, the difficulty in dealing with different English proficiency levels oflearners and their motivation, and the recommended use of ALC Net Academy 2 Super Standard
Course for the universityʼs English curriculum. However, addressing all these points in one course waschallenging. Considering the situation, the researcher decided to apply the flipped classroom model toEnglish Seminar V, of which the instructor was in charge of teaching to students in the Department ofInformation Media Studies. Table 1 shows the course syllabus written and used for this study by theresearcher in 2015.(videos created by two teachers and the ALC Net Academy 2 Super Standard Course
developed and licensed by ALC Press, Inc., and Hitachi Software Engineering Co.)

Table 1Syllabus English Seminar V for Information Media Studies
Semester
Required/ElectiveCourse Outline

Course Goals
Lecture Weeks
123456789-14
15
Evaluation

Heisei 27 Nenndo Academic Year 2015, Second Semester
RequiredThis course is aimed at improving learnersʼ English proficiency, especially
focusing on grammar and vocabulary, to help students achieve their best TOEIC
score. Students are also encouraged to study independently out of class to foster
their autonomy by using ALC Net Academy 2 Super Standard Course by ALC
Education, Inc. In class, students develop their communication skills throughoral reading activities and shadow training.
1. Students achieve their best TOEIC test scores above 550.
2. Students become accustomed to studying language at their own pace out-ofclass.
Contents
Orientation: Course introduction
TOEIC test strategies:
five-sentence pattern, vocabulary mini-test
TOEIC test strategies:
adjectives and adverbs, vocabulary mini-test
TOEIC test strategies: nouns, vocabulary mini-test
TOEIC test strategies: pronouns, vocabulary mini-test
Mid-term test
TOEIC test strategies: conjunctions, vocabulary mini-test
TOEIC Part 5 Test strategies: tenses, present participle, past participle, participle
construction
Practice tests 1-6 on the ALC Net Academy 2
Practice test 7 on the ALC Net Academy 2. End-of-course survey
Final Exam, 50%; Mid-term exam, 30%; Participation, including assignments,
self-study using ALC, and attendance, 20%.

Based on this syllabus, the instructor planned a flipped classroom approach to teach the course.

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MethodParticipants
Thirty-four students (N = 34) registered to take English Seminar V: twenty-four female andten male first-year university students who took the course as a requirement for graduation. In thecourse orientation, the researcher explained how to study the materials using the flipped approach andits procedures, and then started the class with their consent.
Course Design for the Flipped Class
In a flipped class, lecture videos play an important role. Many educational institutions, suchas Harvard University, have been sharing their lecture videos to teachers and students around theworld through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Shibaike and Nakanishi (2014) recommendthat teachers make original videos for students to meet their learning needs. In making videos, Inoue(2014) suggests to teachers the following steps: (1) planning, (2) recording, (3) publishing, and (4)delivering, which the teacher followed.
Table 2
Instructional Design for Flipped Class(1) Planning and Recording
Table 2 shows the instructional design for this flipped class that was designed by the instructor.
Since the course was aimed at improving English grammar and vocabulary, lecture videos were plannedfor each grammar point and vocabulary word. The instructor made videos for the grammar points thatincluded narrated Microsoft PowerPoint slides. In these videos, students were directed to practice aparticular grammar item using ALC Net Academy 2 that they had studied on one of the instructormade videos. In regards to the learning of new vocabulary, students studied other videos that were− 170 −Hiroe TANAKA：Preliminary Study of Flipped English Courses for EFL Learners Using ALC Net Academy 2 and YouTube

created by a native English speaker who lives in the United States. She created and presentedpronunciation videos over five weeks that the students were required to watch and then post comments.
Both researchers appeared on the video to explain the grammar points and how to pronounce the newwords so that the students would become familiar with them.
(2) Publishing and Delivering
Google＋ was used to share the lecture and pronunciation videos. The Google service canprotect studentsʼ privacy by limiting the viewers who can see their pages. The instructor created a pagefor students registered in English Seminar V. They had rights to access the instructorʼs Google pagefrom any device, such as a PC or mobile phone. Figure 2 shows the screenshots from the log-in. All
resources were available for viewing or downloading from the page. Students came to class following
their out-of-class independent studies.
(3) In-Class Activities
The following section explains the typical classroom lecture during weeks 2-8. The fifteenweek course was held in a CALL classroom that was set up with stationed desktop computers. Language
learning using technology tends to isolate students. In this flipped class, activities were planned toprovide more opportunities for interaction with the teacher as Table 2 illustrates. The videos and theircontent created by the Japanese instructor are shown in Table 3. The total time of all the videos was 94
minutes and 45 seconds. It also shows the time of the five pronunciation videos made by the native
English speaker. Their total time was 6 minutes and 48 seconds.

Figure 2.
Screenshot of Google＋ page− 171 −

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Table3
Lecture videos uploaded to YouTube

Data Collection
To gain and evaluate student feedback and attitudes about the flipped course, an end-ofcourse survey was conducted. They were distributed on the end of the course. Thirty-one studentsanswered the end-of-course survey. Three students missed the survey because they did not attend thelast class. As students watched the two sets of required videos, grammar videos created by the Japaneseteacher and pronunciation videos by the native English speaker, they rated each video.
Results and Discussion
Figure 3 shows the results of Question No. 1, “Did you watch the videos before coming toclass?” Thirty-six percent of students reported watching the grammar videos every week before comingto class, compared with 23% watching the vocabulary videos each week.

GrammarVideosPronunciation
VideosFigure 3.
Did you watch the videos before coming to class?
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Figure 4.
Was it helpful for you to study English at home?
Thirteen percent of the students perceived the grammar videos as helpful for studying English
at home, while 22% of all the students considered the vocabulary videos to be useful in their homelearning.
Table 4
What device did you use to watch the videos?
Question No. 4

Smartphone

PCOther71%

26%3%The devices that students used to view the videos are given in Table 4. A large majority ofstudents viewed them through their smartphones.
Table 5How did you perceive Flipped classes?
Question No. 5Very goodGoodNeutral

Bad

55%

39%

3%

3%

Students were asked to answer a question about their overall perceptions of the flipped class.
Table 5 shows the results of question No. 5: 55% answered “very good,” while 39% answered “good”
and 3% were “neutral” in their assessment. A vast majority of students perceived the course favorably.
Question No. 5 was an open-ended query. On their answer sheets, five students wrote opinions orperceptions of the course, which are shown in Table 6.

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Table 6Open-ended comments⃝⃝⃝⃝⃝

I think the pronunciation videos helped me to improve my pronunciation.
I was able to enjoy studying English because I could use various applications.
Teacher should use more textbooks, not videos.
When I could not understand the materials, I was able to stop the video and listen again.
The back ground noise in the videos annoyed me. If you could create videos with improved
audio, they would be easier for us to study.

The end-of-course survey shows student perceptions of the course. The results suggest that thecourse could be helpful for studentsʼ studies outside the classroom even if they were taking a flipped
course for the first time. Additionally, the average daily log-in time per day while doing out-of-classwork for the Power Word Course PLUS was 56 minutes per student. One possible explanation for thelonger average log-in time may be that students watched pronunciation videos by the native English
speaker, thus encouraging them to study new words via e-learning.
Another benefit of the flipped course was revealed when several students came to the instructor
to ask questions after class: an unusual occurrence among Japanese students, who are known for theirshyness and passive learning style in class. Some of their questions involved grammar points that theycould not understand from the lecture videos. In response, the teacher gathered their questions, madea special video to answer them, and then shared the video with all the students via Google Plus page. Itappears that the lecture videos created by the teacher may have helped students feel more familiar andrelaxed with their teacher: a change of attitude that can be said to foster active learning attitudes as aresult of the flipping class methodology.

Conclusion
This case study explored the first attempt by the teacher to apply flipping methodology to auniversity English course, which resulted in an increase in interactions between students and theteacher both during the class and afterwards. Study time also increased from the use of technology
outside of class. The methodology made class time more effective and the classes themselves moreactive. The original videos created for the flipped course encouraged the students to embrace ALC Net
Academy 2 as a learning tool. An end-of-course survey demonstrated an increase in studentsʼ
favorability toward the seminar and the instructor. However, some issues could be better addressed by
the teacher. One would be to plan and make higher-quality videos before delivery to students, whocommented on this in their feedback. Another issue was the lack of availability of post-course scores of
the TOEIC, which the students were not required to take. Such post-course data, combined with precourse data for comparison, would be needed to further investigate the methodologyʼs effectiveness.

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