The effect of flipped teaching method of learning strategies (cognitive-metacognitive) on the development of learners' speaking proficiency and self-regulation in comparison with the traditional approach

Reverse classroom strategy is one of the new teaching-learning methods that has been able to attract the attention of many researchers and experts in recent years and is presented as a solution to overcome the problems and challenges. In addition, in the field of English language teaching, many experts have recently focused on teaching-learning strategies as an effective factor in language learning. Today, many specialists believe that learning language skills alone does not guarantee the success of language learners and the development of self-directed language learners is of high importance. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of flipped teaching of learning strategies (cognitive and meta-cognitive) on learners' speaking proficiency and self-regulation.

This study was quasi-experimental using pre-test/post-test design consisting of experimental and control groups. The participants of this study included 120 intermediate language learners who were homogenized and divided into three experimental groups and one control group. The first experimental group was taught learning strategies (cognitive and metacognitive) through flipped classroom along with teaching the usual textbook at the institute. The second experimental group was taught the institute textbook through the flipped classroom method without combining the teaching of learning strategies. The third experimental group, while teaching the textbook, were taught learning strategies (cognitive and metacognitive) through the traditional classroom. The students of the control group were taught the textbook in the usual traditional way and not being taught any of the learning strategies. In order to assess speaking proficiency of the participants at the beginning and end of the treatment, common institute speaking tests that were designed based on the content of the textbook were used. The validity of the instrument was reviewed and confirmed by several experienced language instructors of the institute. The reliability of the instrument was measured by Cronbach's alpha and was reported to be 0.88. The learners' self-regulation was also assessed by the self-regulation questionnaire designed by Bofard et al. (1995). Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance and two-way ANOVA.

Findings showed that flipped teaching of learning strategies had a positive and significant effect on improving students' speaking proficiency. The results also showed that the independent effects of two variables, i.e. flipped teaching and learning strategies on the level of self-regulation of learners were significant, while the interaction of these two independent variables was not significant. Furthermore, according to the results of Tukey post hoc test for the effect of flipped teaching method and also teaching learning strategies, it was found that the difference between the mean scores of self-regulations of all groups in relation to flipped teaching method and also teaching learning strategies was significant.

As a consequence, it is recommended to integrate CALL into traditional language classes in order to reach better learning outcomes. In addition, English learners mainly complain about the lack of interaction in the out-of-classroom environment, and flipped classrooms can address this need by providing interactive out-of-classroom communication environments.