A Study On The Group Interactive Effect Of Different Grouping Models In Foreign Language Flipped Classroom

With the rapid development of information technology,Flipped Classroom(FC)enjoys great popularity in educational circles,especially in the field of foreign language education that needs to provide students with a lot of opportunities to use language.FC reverses the order of the knowledge transmission and knowledge internalization in traditional teaching,thus increasing teacher-student and student-student interaction in class,as well as boosting students' high-level cognitive competence.Notably,there are a large amount of group interactions in FC.However,group interactive effect in foreign language learning is influenced by various factors,among which,grouping model is one of the important factors that cannot be ignored,while the effect of which has not reached consensus among experts and researchers.Moreover,studies have shown that FC and multiple intelligences complement each other.Therefore,it is of great significance for modern foreign language education to contrast the foreign language learning interactive effect between heterogeneous-multiple-intelligence groups(HMI groups)and free groups in FC.This research,adopted a mixed-research method relying on the qualitative method and supplemented by the quantitative,employed language production(language-related episodes,LREs,and off-task episodes)and Willingness to Communicate(WTC)as the theoretical framework of group interactive effect in FC,studied 31 freshmen who learned a content and language integrated literature course in FC teaching model from the English major of a foreign language university in Northeast China as the participants,collected data through Multiple Intelligences Questionnaire,Willingness to Communicate Questionnaire and video and audio recording,and contrasted the interactive effect between HMI groups and free groups in FC.And the factors influencing the group interactive effect of the two grouping models in FC were investigated through semi-structured interviews.The major findings of this research are as follows.Firstly,HMI groups generated significantly more LREs and resolved more LREs correctly than free groups in theinteractive process.Meanwhile,free groups produced a larger number of off-task episodes in group interaction than HMI ones.Secondly,WTC of HMI groups was quite different from that of free groups,especially in terms of asking peers/teacher a question,volunteering to present an answer and presenting own opinions in the group positively.Last but not least,two main influencing factors of group interactive effect between the two grouping models in FC were identified,namely the readiness of online learning in FC and individual differences(multiple intelligences and relations among group members).The findings of this study will enrich the theories of group interaction and FC,and are beneficial for teachers to conduct effective group interaction in foreign language education FC so as to improve teaching effectiveness.