Flipped Classroom Approach: Its Effect on Learner Autonomy and Language Anxiety of Iranian EFL Learners

Nowadays, technology has become an inseparable part of everyday life. Since the introduction of the internet and prevalence of computers, more and more people have been using electronic media to cover hosts of purposes such as interpersonal communication, sending-receiving information, educational and language perspectives, and so forth. One new form of pedagogy, known as the flipped classroom, extends and enhances learning and accommodates different learning styles. This study was an attempt to investigate the impact of the flipped classroom approach on Iranian EFL learners’ autonomy and anxiety. To this end, 29 students were selected from Gilan Payam-e-Nour University, Roudsar, Iran and divided into the control and experimental groups. They were asked to fill in two questionnaires, namely the English versions of the Zhang and Li's Learner Autonomy Questionnaire, and Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale. The research method employed in this research was a quasi-experimental study with pretest and posttest with a control group. Data was analyzed using ANCOVA. The results of this study revealed that the flipped classroom had a significant effect on the improvement of learner autonomy and it also showed that flipped classroom had a significant effect on suppressing language anxiety. The findings of this study carry important implications for foreign language syllabus designers, curriculum planners and language instructors.