Thesis (PH.D.) - Cyprus International University. Institute of Graduate Studies and Research English Language Teaching Department

Includes bibliography (sheets 131-158)

ABSTRACT
Literary awareness is not only fundamental in English as a Second Language (ESL)
competence or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) literacy
but also considered a hone for the Theory of Mind development. However, students’
interest and academic gains in the subject has been declining for over ten years now.
Although stakeholders believe a more innovative pedagogy could reverse the trend,
there is still a paucity of research in this area. Having our classrooms filled with
digital natives who are disconnected from conventional education means a
technology-integrated teaching could drive the required change. This is what the
study is underpinned on. This research work is structured in two phases with each,
using 320 senior high school Literature in English students in Ghana. The first part
is aimed to extend the six original constructs of the Unified Theory of Acceptance
and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model by introducing perceived self-efficacy,
parent-school involvement, perceived behavioural control as well as experience
expectancy, factors to find out high school students’ intensions and acceptance of
Web-Based Instruction (WBI) for Flipped Instructional Approach (FIA). The
outcome from the study’s newly introduced constructs revealed that performance
expectancy, effort expectancy, parent-school involvement, perceived self-efficacy
and experience expectancy positively influenced students’ behavioural intention to
use WBI. On the contrary, the behavioural control’s effect on students intention to
use WBI for FIA approach was found to be insignificant as opposed to many studies
that supported the relationship of PBC and students’ intention to use WBI for FIA
approach. The second section focused on identifying a suitable pedagogy for high
school English Literature and considered the effect of FIA by testing its impact on
students’ academic attainment and students’ learning preferences and attitudes on the
approach as compared to the conventional teaching approach. While previous studies
carried out on the topic generally adopted other experimental designs, this study
adopted a more robust approach in assessing the interaction between the
Conventional Teaching and the Flipped Instructional approaches. Data were
collected through a two-way randomised controlled crossover experimental design in
comparing the two teaching approaches. The findings indicated that students’
learning attitude and preferences to use Flipped instructional approach within the
context of teaching ESL students was significant in enhancing Literature in English.
In a whole, this study provided new insights into not only the use of a randomised
crossover design in the adoption of Flipped Instructional and Conventional Teaching
approaches but also highlighted the design’s effectiveness in studies on all the three
genres of Literature -poetry, prose and drama. Additionally, the current research
concluded that studies done in an attempt to identify effective teaching approaches in
high school literature should factor into consideration, students’ learning preferences
and attitudes.