Using Flipped Classroom in Foreign Language Teaching: Implementation of Interactive Educational Technologies

Abstract

The paper considers the application of innovative technology “flipped classroom” in foreign language teaching at Russain universities. The flipped classroom involves blended learning – a combination of face-to-face in-class learning and distance learning. The flipped classroom technology implies such organization of the educational process in which students attend face-to-face classes only after they have already gained some theoretical knowledge and understanding of the materials that will be discussed in the classroom. This new approach to teaching is caused by the increasing role of self-education within the framework of cultural competence of a modern specialist because the model lends itself to active learning. The advantages presented by the flipped classroom technology are the increasing time for the individual work with students, the opportunity to provide additional cultural knowledge through a careful selection of the learning content on the one hand, as well as developing of the student’s ability to self-organization and self-education on the other. Online content, in its turn, allows time in class for problem solving and hands-on activities, converting the classroom into a place where active learning occurs.