Examining the Effects of "Small Private Online Course and Flipped-Classroom"-Based Blended Teaching Strategy on First-Year English-Major Students' Achievements

Blended teaching, characterized as a combination of online instruction and face-to-face teaching is effective in maintaining high student retention, promoting learners' motivation and saving costs in EFL teaching. However, as low learning efficiency can lead to a reduced performance related to students' blended learning, it is necessary to study the effectiveness of blended teaching. This study aims to examine the effects of the "SPOC and Flipped classroom"-based blended teaching strategy on first-year English-major students' achievements in five English language skills compared with those of the traditional face-to-face classroom teaching strategy. For this research, a quasi-experiment was conducted for one semester, employing an "SPOC and Flipped classroom"-based blended teaching strategy in two undergraduate classes for first-year English-major students. A total of 64 students majoring in English at a Chinese university in Shandong province participated in the quasi-experiment and were divided into the control class (N = 32, (intact group), with 6 men and 26 women) and the experimental class (N = 32, (intact group), with 4 men and 28 women). Intervention was performed in the experimental class, while a typical face-to-face classroom teaching strategy was employed in the control class. Findings of students' overall achievements showed that the blended teaching strategy based on the SPOC and flipped-classroom approach was more effective in improving students' achievements than face-to-face classroom teaching. Findings of students' achievements in each of the five English language skills showed that the "SPOC and Flipped"-based blended teaching strategy was effective in enhancing students' listening, reading, translating, and writing, but was not effective in speaking. Furthermore, students' genders and regional backgrounds were considered as moderating variables of students' achievements, and findings indicated that gender had no significantly positive effect on students' achievements in the blended teaching intervention. However, a significant difference in achievements between the students from urban and rural areas was observed, which indicated that regional background had significantly positive effect on students' achievements in blended teaching. The findings of the research implied that the implementation of well-designed blended learning that uses effective strategies could significantly improve students' achievements in English language skills, but that there would be different results among students of different skill levels and regional backgrounds. Moreover, as the quality of EFL blended teaching improves, students' academic performance will be enhanced.