Flipped Learning (FL) Approach: Teaching Academic Writing Skill to Tertiary EFL Learners

FL approach is defined as a pedagogical approach in which direct institution moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space, and the resulting group space is transformed into dynamic and interactive learning environment where the educators guides students as they apply concept and engages creatively in the subject matter. Accordingly, This study was aimed at exploring the effect of FL approach on higher education students’ achievements in academic writing skill. Therefore, experimental research design was applied to find out the significant effect. Moreover, the quantitative data were collected through academic writing test. In order to find out the significant effect of FL approach on the students’ achievements on academic writing, the data were tabulated by employed General Linear Model (GLM) univariate in Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) version 21. The result of this study shows that there was a significant effect of FL approach on college students’ study result in learning academic writing skill. Hence, the implementation of FL approach is highly recommended in EFL classroom especially teaching writing. However, teaching and doing research on other skills (speaking, listening and reading) are also suggested to implement FL approach.


Background of Study
English is a global language. Everybody nowadays learns English for many purposes in different levels of institution starting from primary to university level because by the end of the twentieth century English was already well on its way to becoming a genuine lingua franca, that is a language used widely for communication between people who do not share the same first or even the second language. Basically, there are four skills that learners learn in English language namely listening, speaking, reading and writing skills (Hammer, 2007). Therefore, writing is one of the important skills to be mastered by the learners.
Conversely, the most complex skill in English Language Teaching and Learning (ELTL) is "writing" because the process of writing requires cognitive, linguistics and resources (Hayes, 1996;Kellogg, 1996). Furthermore, tertiary students nowadays are required to have writing skill in higher education level in order for them to graduate from the higher institution such as university, college and or academy, ranging from simple paragraph, summary, essay to professional academic writing and article.
On the other hand, (Kurk and Atay, 2007) claimed that writing skill is the most difficult skill in language because according to Alsamdani (2010) stated that writing skill is challenging and difficult process because there are many steps needed to be fulfilled such as thesis statement identification, composing supporting idea, reviewing and revising, and editing. Moreover, the difficulties of writing skill is not only for learners of foreign language but also for the native speakers since every learner should make stable various issues like organization, content, grammar, language choice for selected audience and punctuation (Abu-Rass, 2001).
To solve the issue in writing skill particularly for current tertiary EFL learners in higher education level, the relevant approach or method is urgently needed to make teaching and learning of English valuable and meaning full, and beneficial for the learners lives. According to Demirel (2016), the most important thing for modern learning approach or method is full touch with recent technology. Now days, technology is very engaged to our daily lives even we cannot do our daily activities without it because we are all surrounded by the technology and most of our works are done with the help of technology. Therefore, instead of being a slave for the technology, it is bright to apply technology in teaching and learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to tertiary students particularly for writing skill.
The current tertiary students are the new generation that so much interrelated with technology. This statement is supported by Dudeney and Hockly (2012) who stated that today's learners are digital native who grow up using technology, unlike parents are digital immigrants who come late to the world of technology. In so doing, since the parents and the kids are so much different, the teaching approach or model should not be the same.
To sustainably support the digital native and to meet the current learners' demands in learning environment, transposing the classes is a smart and relevant idea to be implemented in teaching writing skill. Additionally, many scholars of English Language Teaching (ELT) have changed from teacher-centred learning to student-centred learning because students-centred learning environment is relevant for the current learners context, condition and environment; classroom is not the one and only venue form student to gain the knowledge. Brown (2007) said that to achieve good learning outcomes, recent English educator should develop valuable engagement both inside and outside the classroom by creating students-centred learning environment.
In order to create the teaching and learning writing skill base on students-centred environment, some researchers strongly suggest Flipped Learning (FL) approach to be implemented in teaching writing. Flipped Learning (FL) approach is flipping teaching where the learners studies the contents at home by using technology equipment such as video, pods, e-books, website or blogs and classroom is used to do the assignment or homework to strengthen students' important knowledge understanding (Bretzmann, 2013). On a simple way, Flipping (2013) says, "School work at home and home work at school". Even though this is overly simplistic and does not cover the real definition and practice of Flipped Learning approach, the main idea of flipping the environment has been there. In the practice of FL approach, educators have to savvy themselves with numerous skills in computer for staying updated in English Language Teaching field and to meet the needs of digital native generations.
The relevancy of FL approach for current tertiary EFL learners looks like very relevant even though the effect of the FL approach may vary to different situation, condition and context of students. Therefore, further study or research is needed on investigating the effect of FL approach on tertiary EFL learners' achievements in academic writing.

Objective of Study
In accordance with background of study, the main objective of this study was to examine the effect of Flipped Learning (FL) approach on tertiary EFL students' achievements in academic writing and the particular objectives are formulated as following: 1) To test the significant difference of achievements between experimental group taught through Flipped Learning and control group taught through Classical method.
2) To examine the significant effect of FL on tertiary EFL learners' academic writing achievements in Indonesia.

Flipped Learning (FL) Approach
Flipped Learning is defined as a "pedagogical approach in which direct instruction moves from the group learning space to the individual learning space, and the resulting group space is transformed into a dynamic, interactive learning environment where the educator guides students as they apply concepts and engage creatively in the subject matter" (Flipping Learning Network, 2014). From the definition, it is clear that Flipped Learning is not simply flipped the classroom which is "school work at home and home work at school". It is more creative and active because through Flipped Learning, the teachers are suggested to use new and various methodologies and techniques into their classrooms. Moreover, Demirel (2016) defined that Flipped Learning is a learning structure, which uses technology to make the teaching learning process in classroom become easier and more convenient to save class-time into teacher-student interaction instead of lecturing. Therefore, the students are more active and responsible for their studies and the teachers only guide and facilitate them.
On the other hand, Musallam (2011) stated that in Flipped Learning, teachers change the way of teaching from group learning into individual learning with the help of technology. Teachers create videos of themselves teaching or brows videos lesson from any Internet sites. The videos or screencast should be available for students to access whenever and wherever it is convenient and as many times as they like. This makes student come to class better prepared.

Four Pillars of Flipped Learning
As the main focus of Flipped Learning is to meet the individual students learning needs in this new era, every teachers is given a space to make their teaching learning process becomes easier and convenient to students. It means in Flipped Learning, the teachers are required to be creative and professional. Therefore, Flipped Learning Network (FLN) together with Pearson's School Achievement Service (2013) discovered the key features, or pillars, of Flipped Classrooms that allow Flipped Learning to occur. The four pillars are basically to help the teachers in setting teaching methodology with a clear set of rules in Flipped Learning (FL) approach. The four pillars are a) Flexible Environment, b) Learning Culture, c) Intentional Content and d) Professional Educators.

a) Flipped Learning Requires Flexible Environment
The first key to Flipped Learning approach is flexible environment. It is a must to apply variety-learning modes in Flipped Learning because having variety and flexible learning environment would have students feel free from tension and nervous. Some teachers often change or rearrange their teaching method or strategy. It is included group discussion, pair work, individual work, performance, evaluation and soon. Therefore, for the better way of teaching and learning, Flipped Learning requires flexible learning environment so that teachers and students would have positive stress-free environment and they have extra time to do activities.

b) Flipped Learning Requires a Shift in Learning Culture
The function of the teachers in Flipped Learning is not the only source for learning but it is shifted to be more as facilitator for the students. So, the student-centred learning is being the culture for Flipped Learning. It means that the students get involved in the teaching and learning process and had the opportunity to participate in each step of learning itself. Therefore, the students will understand and learn the knowledge deeply.

c) Flipped Learning Requires Intentional Content
The content for the teaching and learning through Flipped Learning should be internationally intelligible. It means that the content should be international standard started from the knowledge, language, even to form. The teachers should know how to match the content to the student-level of proficiency and should know how to maximize the time in order to apply various the teaching method, techniques, and strategy such as problem-based learning, peer review, and cooperative learning methods and so on. If there is extra time, the teachers should know how to give extra content proportionally. This way will make teaching and learning more effective and better.

d) Flipped Learning requires professional educators
From general critics and comments, the people might say that in Flipped Learning, the system would replace the educators since the function of the educators is only to facilitate the students the gain the knowledge world-widely. This is actually misunderstood of the flipped learning concept. Basically, the teachers are needed to more professional on this system because the teachers should know how to shift the group discussion into individual work, should know how to give a professional materials (video, content, assessment and evaluation) and should know how to maximize the face-to-face time between students and educator.

Advantages of Flipping
According to Demirel (2016) there are four (4) main advantages if we teach students through Flipped Learning approach. They are:

Autonomous learners
Through Flipped Learning the students are the cores of the teaching learning process so that the students feel responsible for their learning and it brings to long life learning process.

High Level Thinking Skill
As in Flipped Learning approach the students are no longer listening to the teachers' explanations in class but outside of the class such as home, café and so on, they watch the video and do not have direct teachers to explain if they have questions. Therefore, they have to think carefully and it leads them to high critical thinking even though they still have chance to give the questions in class.

Having ready students for the class
Since the students have already watched the teaching video from their teachers and also they have already done the exercise about the knowledge, the students are ready to have more detail discussion in class so that teachers and students are ready for the discussion.

Having a Good Quality Time
In class students have more time to interact with their peer and the can do more discussion in class. If they have confusion on the topic given they still have friends to discuss with. Moreover, they have more time to interact with the teachers to ask questions and also to help them to solve any problem related to the topics.

Writing Achievement
Writing is a process of formulating and organizing ideas in appropriate language to send the passage through a piece of paper. According to Jones in Cooper and Odell (1977) writing is synonymous with discourse, and discourse is discussed in terms of its aims, it relate to the function of language, and in terms of its feature, which are the separate elements, devices, and mechanism of language. On the other hand, (Reinking et al., 1993) state that writing is a way of communication and of course communicates all the time. And then Deporter and M. (2002) explain that writing is a whole brain activity, which uses right brain side (emotion) and left-brain side (logic).
From the experts' definitions, it can be stated that writing is a composition task to formulate and organize ideas in proper language to deliver the passage to the reader and present it on a piece of paper.
In order to deliver the passage effectively, the writing logically should be effective as well. Therefore, there some indicators or requirements those need to be achieved by the learners so that the readers can easily understand the content of the writing. It means that achievement is very important. Travers (1970) states that achievement is the result of what an individual has learned from some education experience. Therefore, the learners should have experiences in order to reach the good achievement that is why in writing the students are required to review and revise their writings so that they have enough experiences in writing process. Then, Yelon et al. (1977)) express achievement as the successfulness of individual learning, while another source Smith and Hudgins (1964) says that "achievement is to do one's best, to be successful to accomplish tasks requiring skill and effort and to be recognized by authority". It means that learners are considered that have been reaching the achievement if they successfully accomplish the indicators or the task requirements. Therefore, writing achievement is the ability to fulfill successfully the complete requirements of organizing, formulating and delivering passage of writing task in a piece of paper. In the other words, writing achievement is successfully accomplishing the writing task's requirements in order to be easily understood by the readers.

FLA in Teaching Writing
There are some researchers who have done researches on applying Flipped Learning approach in writing skill subject. Most of them have concluded that FL approach gave a positive impact to the learners' writing achievements although few of scholars did not satisfy with the result.
Started from the research done by Leis et al. (2015). They compared flipped learning method to traditional method in English composition course. The subjects of the study were 22 Japanese higher education students. From the study, they found that those who taught through flipped learning produced more vocabularies in their essays. Additionally, the students' results in the writing proficiencies were significantly greater than those who were taught through traditional way. Ahmad (2016) conducted an experimental research on 60 female tertiary students in Saudi Arabia. The research was about the effect of flipped learning instructions on writing skill in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context. He divided the 60 students in to two groups (30 in experimental group and 30 in control group). From the study, he found that the students who were taught through the flipped learning were significantly greater than the students who were taught through traditional method. In addition, the students in experimental group have positive attitude towards flipped learning instruction.
Ekmekci (2017) did a research to two groups of English language students in Turkey. He compared the flipped learning and traditional face-to-face lecture-base in academic writing class. The result was that the flipped learning group outperformed significantly the traditional face-to-face lecture-base group. Moreover, the students in flipped learning group gave positive attitudes towards flipped learning instruction. Soltanpour and Valizadeh (2018) have conducted a very interesting study entitled "A flipped Writing Classroom: Effects on EFL Learners' Argumentative Essays". The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of flipped instruction on Iranian EFL learners' quality of argumentative essays. The study was conducted on experimental research design and each group was administered three sessions of treatment. From the study, they have found that the Flipped Learning Instruction group significantly outperformed the Traditional Instruction group.
Even though Flipped Learning does not work in every community or classes particularly because of the difference of context and situation. Therefore, this Flipped Learning Approach needs to be studied in every context and situation in every country. That is why this study was very crucial to be conducted in Indonesia as this approach has been successfully implemented in other countries in which English is recognized as foreign language as well such as Japan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Hypothesis
The hypothesis of this study can be formulated in terms of (Ha and Ho). Ha-means alternative hypothesis and Ho-means null hypothesis: Ho: There is no significant effect of Flipped Learning approach on tertiary EFL learners' writing achievements. Ha: There is significant effect of Flipped Learning approach on tertiary EFL learners' writing achievements.

Design
This study was conducted in experimental research design in which the participants of the research are divided in to two groups namely experimental group and control group. Both groups would be administered pre-and posttests. The treatment for the experimental group was taught through flipped learning instruction and the control group was taught through Traditional Instruction. The design is clearly described on the following table.

Participants
There were 60 students who were participated in this recent study. The students were separated into two groups namely experimental and control groups. Each group consisted of 30 students. In addition, the ranges of their ages were from 18 -20 years old. The participants were selected randomly from 180 university students in Indonesia. In addition, the students were in the third semester and sitting for Writing-3 subject. It means that the students were ready for academic writing since in Writing -3, students were studying about academic writing. Furthermore, all participants were using English for international communication only as they have local languages as their first language such as Batak Language, Mandailing Language, Karo Language but they communicate daily by using Indonesian Language as national language. So, English is as a Foreign Language for them and they used it only for international communication in daily life.

Materials 3.3.1. Academic Writing Book
The material used in teaching and test the students' academic writing is Achieve IELTS 2 English for International Education; Second Edition". This book is following the Common European Framework of References (CEFR), in which this book is suitable for B2 to C1 Level or Band 5.5 to 7 in IELTS score. Furthermore, this book is written by Louis Harrison, Caroline Cushen and Susan Hutchison and published in 2013. Practically, not all contents of this book would be taught to the students as the students were only taught academic writing task 1, which is describing a report.

Writing Rubric
The rubric is taken from takeielts.britishcouncil.org. This rubric applied 4 indicators in assessing the writing task 1. The 4 indicators are task achievement, coherent and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammatical range and accuracy. The band given is from 0 to 9. For additional information, this rubric is used by British Council, IDP and University of Cambridge ESOL examination.

Instruments
Composition test: writing pre-test and post-test were administered to both groups of students, which are experimental and control groups. The test was asking the students to describe and report the data given in charts. The chart gives information about science qualifications held by people in two countries. Thus, the task was only asking the students to summarize the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant but the students were only given 30 minutes to complete the writing task and they need to write about 150 words.

Validity and Reliability of the Test
Two experts in writing skills have validated the writing test. The two experts were teaching at State University of Medan and Australian Centre in Medan City for several years. Then, for the reliability of the test, the researcher used the Inter-Rater reliability test using the two experts to score the students writing test in pilot study. The examiners were two writing lecturers from English Education Study Program, State University of Medan. The result shows that there was no significant different between the score mean from the first, and the second examiner on scoring the tertiary ESOL learners' writing task 1.The result of the Inter-Rater Reliability (IRR) or Kappa on the students' writing score was 0.8.

Procedures
Step one: Preparation for the flipped learning materials. The material that had been set up for the treatment was teaching materials for IELTS Writing Task 1. The materials were lesson plan, teaching video, Google Classroom (for online flat form), online test and in class exercise (writing task) and discussion worksheet.
Step two: After the teaching video and online test were ready, both were uploaded in the Google Classroom so the students could access them whenever and wherever they were. But before the students accessed to the teaching video and the online test, the pre-test had been administrated to the students. Then, both groups had been taught for four meetings each. The treatment was teaching the experimental group through the implementation of Flipped Learning approach, while the control was taught through the implementation of classical method. The treatment for the experimental group was implementing Flipped Learning approach. There are three (3) stages in implementing the Flipped Learning approach, namely pre-class, during-class and post-class. The activities in each stage is presented in the following table:

Getting the Knowledge
The students got the PIN to be able to access Google Classroom. Then, the students watched the teaching video wherever and whenever they could. If the students could not understand the explanation, they took note and brought the question (s) to class. The duration of the video was 30 minutes and the content was an explanation about how to write the IELTS writing task 1. Started from the introduction and report, until to the language choice and grammar use in the report.

Test the Knowledge
After the students watched the teaching video, they would answer the online test provided by the lecturer in Google Classroom. This test is to measure their understanding about the writing task 1 in IELTS. The time for the online test is only 30 minutes with 20 multiple-choice questions.

Lecturer' Notes
After the students did the test, the lecturer studied the report of students' answers. From the Google Form, the lecturer could see the students' understanding about the IELTS writing task 1. The report showed the weakness and the strengths of students. From this report, lecturer prepared materials, exercise, and worksheet for discussion used in the class. 2 During-Class

Lecturer-Students Interactions (30 minutes)
In class, the lecturer discussed again the answer for the online test and reported the students result from the online test so the students knew their level of understanding. Then, the lecturer asked the students if they had questions related to the explanation in the teaching video or lecturer opened for discussion.

Students -Students Interactions controlled by lecturer (60 minutes)
During class, the teachers were given discussion worksheet related to deep understanding about Writing Task 1 in IELTS. The students were divided into 10 groups (3 persons in one group). The students discussed all questions given in the discussion worksheet including writing task at the end of the sheet. Then, the students presented their answers and their writing so that each group could see the different answer and writing. During the presentation, the Q&A sessions were opened so that the students could get more understanding. In addition, if there were questions or problems which students could not answer or solve, then the lecturer was involved to answer and solve them.
Individual Exercise (30 minutes) During the class, the students were given exercise, which was asking the students to write a report from a chart. The time given for this exercise was only 20 minutes. After doing the exercise, the class was ended by giving the conclusion to students and lecturer informed the result and revision to the students and then the exercise would be available in Google Classroom and/or WA group. 3 Post-Class

Review, Revise, and Mark.
After the class, lecturer reviewed the students' works and gave comments (if any). Then, the results of the review were uploaded in Google Classroom. Then, the students got the result and did revision (if any) no later than time given. Then the students submitted again to the lecturer's email after revision so the lecturer could mark the paper. After marking the paper, the scores were given to students personally in the next class.
Step three: After the treatment, post-test were administered to both groups. Then, the scores of pre-test and posttest from both groups were collected and tabulated as quantitative data. The data were computerized in Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21.

Technique of Data Analysis
Since objective of this study was to examine the effect of Flipped Learning Approach in tertiary EFL learners' Academic Writing achievements, the data were analysed by using General Linear Model (GLM) univariate in SPSS version 21. The pre-test and post-test for both groups were computerized and tabulated. Then, the difference score of both groups were analysed by General Linear Model (GLM) univariate to find out the score mean of both groups and the significant effect of Flipped Learning approach within the groups.

Results and Discussion
After the contribution assumption normality was confirmed, the required parametric test had been done. Then, the dependent the Linear Model (GLM) univariate was employed to investigate to effect of Flipped Learning approach on tertiary EFL learners' academic writing achievements. Hence, the following table is showing the comparison between experimental and control groups.  Table 3 shows the values of means and standard deviation for the difference of the two groups' scores on academic writing. The mean score of the experimental group was 1.6 points higher than the control group. It means that the experimental group outperformed the control group. To show clearly the difference between experimental and control, the estimated marginal means of difference between both groups are presented on the following figure.  Figure 1 shows the estimated marginal means of big differences between control and experimental groups. It is clear that the experimental group achieved higher score mean than control did. In order to examine the significant difference the test of between subjects (groups) has been tabulated as follows. Table 4 shows the significant difference between the two groups (F= 50.966, p = 0.00<0.05). It means that there was a significant effect of Flipped Learning on tertiary EFL learners in academic writing achievement. Therefore, the alternative hypothesis, which was "there was significant effect of Flipped Learning approach on tertiary EFL learners' writing achievements" is accepted.  Table 5 shows the levene's test of equality of error variances of the differences between the groups' scores. As a result, tests the null hypothesis that the error variance of the dependent variable is equal across groups. It means that the null hypothesis which is "There is no significant effect of Flipped Learning approach on tertiary EFL learners' writing achievements" is rejected.

Conclusion
Literally, flipped learning approach is very much different with the traditional approach. Since the main role of teaching and learning English is to fulfil the learners' needs, everything is changing day by day with the development of technology in this new era. Born and grown in the era of technology, the students feel helpless in classical method or in the method of teaching without technology. The really need to use technology in and out of classroom, interact with their mates, discuss with their teachers or lecturers and involved in teaching and learning process so that they feel that they are learning. Therefore, The result of this study tends to support the finding of the previous researchers who said that Flipped Learning approach has significant effect on student achievement in writing skills (Ahmad, 2016;Ekmekci, 2017;Leis et al., 2015;Soltanpour and Valizadeh, 2018). And all of them concluded that Flipped Learning approach helped the students to improve their writing skills. Even though the achievements of the students is very positive, it is actually not merely because of the use of technology but also in Flipped Learning approach, the students felt comfortable with the learning environment which was very flexible and attractive. The students had friend to discuss with when they got stuck in solving a problem. Then, they could express what was in their mind to their classmates.
Moreover, Many agree with Demirel (2016) that since the current students are digital natives, the use of technology is a must in teaching. FL approach is very much using the technology that is why the students felt comfortable while learning through Flipped Learning approach. Additionally, the four pillars of the Flipped Learning approach, which are flexible environment, learning culture, intentional content and professional educators (Flipping Learning Network, 2014), are very much match with the students' needs in this digital era.
Flipped Learning approach gives all in one of digital natives needs. First of all, in Flipped Learning approach the students are the cores of the learning so that the students feel very important and responsible for their works. Because if the students have responsibility, they will get engaged and have the chance to learn independently. Second, the use of technology in teaching learning process, the students do not feel strange and alienated in the learning culture. Since they are digital natives, they cannot be separated from technology. If they are taught without technology, they will not feel comfortable and they feel that the teaching and learning process does not meet their needs. Third, the flexible and relaxed circumstance make the students do not feel nervous and have time to discuss with classmate and teachers to solve problem and practice more and they will feel safe when they get stuck.
Flipped Learning approach encourages the learners to have responsibility and opportunity to be the main actor of the learning because the sources of the knowledge such as materials, exercises and practice nowadays are very easy to get especially from Internet. Therefore, students need this kind of approach to improve their achievements in learning English. Hence, Flipped Learning approach provides very good chance towards developing more autonomous learners.

Implementation
In accordance with the conclusion, it is very advisable for teachers to implement Flipped Learning approach in teaching English for current tertiary EFL learners. It is not merely teaching writing skill but also teaching other skills such as listening, reading and speaking. For further research, the findings of this study can be used as a preliminary data to explore more advantages of Flipped Learning approach on other language skills. Moreover, for the best result of flipped learning implementation, the four pillars of the flipped learning should be fulfilled as the foundation of the Flipped Learning approach. Moreover, to be more interesting, the teaching videos need to be developed with teachers' videos or not taking from Internet but creating by the teachers so that the students can feel the Flipped Learning approach. Then, the online exercise can be expended by using other online apps so that students do not feel bored if using variety apps for the exercises.