The Perceptions of Elementary School Teachers on Flipped Learning for Elementary English Instruction

Flipped learning has recently been noticed as an important and innovative teaching method which aims to make student-centered learning a reality in classrooms. It can increase the interaction between students and teachers which transforms traditional lectures into individual and group based activities. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine how teachers perceive flipped learning and how flipped learning can be applied in an elementary English education setting, especially, in terms of output hypothesis. The survey method was conducted with 242 elementary school teachers. As a result of analysis, teachers who know flipped learning had more positive thoughts on the possibility of using flipped learning in the English classroom than teachers who do not know it. Many teachers also perceived that flipped learning can create enough time and various learning opportunities during class, such as output or interactive activities which can provide speaking or role-playing activities. However, teachers also perceived the difficulties of making videos, searching meaningful content and resources for English education, and learning new types of teaching methods which seem to be a burden for teachers. As this study shows the possibility of applying flipped learning to the English classroom, more research and professional development on flipped learning should be developed and provided.