Implementing the flipped classroom approach in university foreign language teaching and evaluating its impact on the quality of classroom interaction and assessment results

Abstract

The article examines the implementation of the flipped classroom approach in university foreign language teaching as a manifestation of a broader shift from transmissive to constructivist models, driven by the changing status of the learner and the growing accessibility of information. It demonstrates that under traditional lecture-seminar organization, contact time is often spent on low-level cognitive operations, while the shortage of guided speech practice diminishes the quality of communicative competence and limits the diagnostic value of assessment. The theoretical reconstruction of the phenomenon relies on systemic-structural and comparative analysis, interpretation of scholarly texts, and modeling of instructional interaction parameters, enabling a description of the flipped classroom as a holistic pedagogical system with redistributed cognitive load: familiarization with material is shifted to the out-of-class phase, while classroom space is devoted to application, analysis, evaluation, and productive speaking. It discusses psychological-pedagogical mechanisms that deepen assimilation: reduction of extraneous cognitive load via controlled pacing with digital content, transformation of input material into assimilated knowledge through collaborative meaning construction, and activation of the zone of proximal development through facilitation and supportive scaffolding in group interaction. The potential of peer teaching and professionally oriented simulations is explored, where language serves as a tool for task resolution rather than an object of mechanical reproduction. Particular attention is paid to the transformation of assessment: enhancement of formative procedures, utilization of the digital footprint for preliminary diagnostics and adaptation of classroom scenarios, and increased validity of control through capturing thinking processes and communicative effectiveness. Risks of the model are identified, associated with insufficient learner autonomy, widening gaps between students in self-regulation levels, increased teacher workload, and the threat of content simplification due to flawed material design, necessitating institutional support and development of learners' metacognitive skills.