Facilitating Student Interaction: The Role of Flipgrid in Blended Language Classrooms

Abstract

In this action research project, 189 first-year Japanese university students were introduced to Flipgrid, an online video discussion platform, as a means to facilitate communication and interaction with peers in the absence of traditional face-to-face communicative activities. This paper presents a discussion of the learners’ perceptions of Flipgrid and the role it played in facilitating interaction in an English communication course. The implementation of Flipgrid in the course is introduced before a discussion of the quantitative and qualitative data gathered from online surveys. Results were derived from an analysis of Likert-scale items and an emergent thematic analysis of open-ended survey questions. The data suggest that while some learners are hesitant to use Flipgrid, it has the potential to provide an effective platform for interaction and communication in a digital environment.