The effect of flipped classroom instruction on Iraqi EFL learners' writing skills

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of Flipped Classroom Instruction (FCI) on Iraqi EFL learners' writing skills. Participants included 66 students in the College of Languages, English Department at Salahaddin University. Two sophomore writing classrooms were examined: one as a control group consisting of 32 students and the other as an experimental group consisting of 34 students. The study employed a mixed method of data collection, utilizing pre- and post-writing tests as well as a questionnaire for both groups and interviews conducted only with the experimental group. The purpose of the writing tests was to determine whether any statistically significant difference existed between the control group, who was administered a traditional, teacher-based writing instruction, and the experimental group, who was administered FCI over the course of eight weeks. For analyzing the data obtained from the writing tests, an independent-sample t-test was employed, and a descriptive and thematic analysis was conducted to explore the views of students towards FCI. Findings indicated that a statistically significant difference existed between the control and experimental groups and, more specifically, that the students of the experimental group performed better on the writing tests than students of the control group. The majority of the learners' attitudes towards FCI were positive.