What the FLIP do they think is going on? Learners’ and practitioners’ understanding of flipped learning in an emergency remote teaching English for academic purposes pre-sessional course

Abstract

This small-scale case study sheds light on perceptions of flipped learning in an emergency remote teaching (Hodges et al., 2020) English for academic purposes (EAP) pre-sessional course in the U.K. context. Specifically, it explores students’ engagement with flipped learning (FL) from the perspectives of both EAP learners and practitioners. Using semi-structured interviews thematically analysed, key contributors to students’ engagement with FL are identified, following Cargile and Gollobin’s (2024) emergency remote teaching (ERT) reflective framework. These contributors are monitoring the flipped content, seamlessly integrating the flipped content and the live sessions, and creating a clear link between the flipped content and the assessments followed. Results also evidence students’ sophisticated understanding of FL, which is not systematically demonstrated by practitioners. Based on this analysis, this article concludes with a suggested checklist of good practices that aim to facilitate the successful implementation of FL based on the lessons learned during the pandemic. This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Keywords

• flipped learning
• pre-sessional course
• English for academic purposes
• blended learning
• emergency remote teaching
• online learning