Does Attendance Time Matter? Standard vs. Flipped Classroom on WTC, Motivation, and Autonomy

Pitfalls reported in normative approaches toward language teaching, movement into post-method frameworks and the necessity of reaping the benefits of technological advancements gave birth to flipped instruction as a newly emerged practice of teaching. A robust literature has submitted proof of the merits of this practice in language learning. Thus, adopting an innovative perspective, the current research was an attempt to investigate the effect of virtual and standard flipped methods on autonomy, motivation, and WTC of Iranian intermediate language learners. To this aim, 63 intermediate learners (male and female) were selected through convenience sampling, and after removing outliers, 54 learners were randomly assigned to control (N=19), first experimental (N=18), and second experimental (N=17) groups. For each variable, a valid instrument was adopted from the literature and modified for the purpose of the study. Then, employing a pre-test/intervention/post-test design, learners’ performance on the post-test was measured and analyzed through one-way analysis of variance and Kruskal-Wallis. The outputs revealed a statistically significant difference between groups on autonomy as determined by one-way ANOVA (F (2, 51) = 25.221, p = 0.000). Also, a Kruskal-Wallis H test indicated a statistically significant difference in mean scores between the different groups of language learners, χ2 (2) = 32.317, p = 0.000 for WTC, and χ2 (2) = 32.261, p = 0.000 for motivation. Post-hoc tests were conducted to specify where the differences are laid. Further investigation is suggested to examine the interaction between the variables. These findings have implications for educational researchers, language teachers, language learners, and applied linguists.