Flipgrid for Speaking Success: Unearthing EFL Students’ Attitudes and Anxıety Level in Distance Learning

Annotation. This study aimed to investigate students‘ attitudes and anxiety levels, as well as their relations with students‘ Flipgrid speaking success (FgSS). Correlational study was conducted, 54 English Department students took part in speaking test and survey. Students showed positive attitude and low anxiety. Both psychological factors had high correlation to FgSS and FgSS-anxio-usness had stronger correlation (r = -0.810, very strong) than FgSS-attitude (r = 0.642, strong).


Introduction
Speaking English is a challenging and time-consuming effort for EFL students (Arifin, 2017;Fauzan, 2016;Leong & Ahmadi, 2016;Zhang, 2009). Many students have studied English for many years; however, some have shown great English performances, whereas some others are still unable to speak the language naturally and coherently (Bueno et al., 2006). Similar circumstances were also relevant in a variety of contexts. Despite having studied English in school for years, many Palestinian students seem to be unable to communicate effectively in English (Al-Nakhalah, 2016). In the Indonesia context, Farhani et al. (2020) and Poedjiastutie (2020) state that many first-year English language undergraduates struggle to improve their speaking skills. In addition, Chinese EFL learners confront numerous challenges, notably speaking (Amoah & Yeboah, 2021). Those facts may be related to various issues that prevent learners from improving their speaking performance (Phan et al., 2021). Nguyen and Tran (2015) discovered that several factors such as performance conditions, affective factors, listening skills, and feedback during speaking tasks influence EFL learners' speaking performance. Ngo (2011) had previously identified three potentially challenging aspects, namely psychology, linguistics, and socio-cultural.
The COVID-19 pandemic has driven nearly 1.3 million educational institutions in the world to transform their traditional classroom into distance learning (UNESCO, 2020). The vetting and selecting of the increasing reliance on online learning for school students are thus inevitable (Martin, 2020). This implementation poses issues for all parties involved, notably students. Furthermore, successful distance teaching, including teaching speaking, necessitates adequate preparatory time, circumstance-specific pedagogic adaptations, and consideration of factors affecting it (Bozkurt et al., 2021). As shown by Arodjiah (2020) and Coman et al. (2020), teachers' authority to regulate students' participation in an online class is less than in an offline instructional context. Some studies have found that online speaking courses are dull (Efriana, 2021;Zboun & Farah, 2021), demotivate students (Erlina et al., 2020), and cause students to avoid further practice (Wibowo et al., 2020). Ultimately, it is pivotal for speaking teachers to find online teaching innovations.
The use of online or mobile devices with applications designed for various educational levels, including college students, to mediate distance learning, has increased steadily and rapidly as the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2019 (Alshoud & Harasis, 2021). Because of the numerous advantages of mobile technology such as ease of use, ubiquity, location-based service, seamless learning, and rich learning resources, college students appear to readily accept mobile devices as a learning tool in both formal and informal educational settings (Chung et al., 2015;Lowenthal & Moore, 2020). Thereby, incorporating mobile devices into college students' EFL learning has the potential to meet the needs of learning English as a foreign language while also providing convenience without being limited by time and location (Looi et al., 2010) as well as advancing students' academic attainment (Mango, 2021).
Many newly invented interactive video platforms have significantly contributed to the maturation of support for EFL speaking classes in recent years. Microsoft's Flipgrid is one of the emerging video platforms. It offers simple (Lamb, 2015) free video discussions to make learning more enjoyable and fulfilling, as well as empower language ability (Amirulloh et al., 2020;McLain, 2018;Sanchez & Lozada, 2021). Flipgrid is a video discussion platform that allows educators to see and hear from every student in the classroom while also creating a fun and supportive social learning environment (Tan, 2019). Henceforth, Flipgrid has the potential to aid synchronous and asynchronous distance learning. It can be the answer to the issue of managing an online speaking class (Littlefield, 2018;Singh & Thurman, 2019).
Many studies have discussed Flipgrid speaking and the relationship with students' psychological aspects such as attitude and anxiety. Shin and Yunus (2021) explained that students had a positive attitude toward the employment of Flipgrid in a CEFR classroom speaking class due to its potentials. Students regarded Flipgrid as a useful technology to facilitate their interactions in Blended Language (Edwards & Lane, 2021) and boost their speaking performance (Nurrida et al., 2021). Students also enjoyed the ease of Flipgrid to help them meet and hear classmates (Lowenthal & Moore, 2020). Flipgrid motivated students to speak more (Tuyet & Kang, 2020). Regarding the discussion on anxiety, Al-Khotaba et al. (2019) and Belegdair (2015) explained that anxiousness appeared to be a dominant factor influencing students' performance in Flipgrid speaking class. Dung and Hung (2020) stated that students with high anxiety obtained lower Flipgrid speaking proficiency. As a solution, Tuyet and Khang (2020) claimed a reduction in the anxiety level among EFL high school learners in learning English speaking after using Flipgrid. In more detail, Hasibuan and Irzawati (2019) reported that students' nervousness and fear strongly influence students' public speaking success. Furthermore, Horwitz (2001) proved the negative association between anxiety and speaking achievement using the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) framework.
Several studies have demonstrated the value of investigating some of the psychological factors such as anxiety, motivation, and attitude that influence the learning process. Some affective factors, according to scholars, play an important role in determining second and foreign language learning success or failure in English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL) (Ghorbandordinejad & Nasab, 2013). There has been a resurgence of interest in foreign language learning anxiety, motivation, and attitude since the 1980s (Abdullah & Shah, 2014;Getie, 2020;Huang et al., 2016;Nijat et al., 2019;Rahimi & Soleymani, 2015).
However, there are only few studies that look at the combination of two or more psychological factors in the domain of Speaking learning with Flipgrid integration for online learning as to ensure that learning successfully carried out in the era of COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, this study sees this as an intriguing opportunity to investigate. Especially, the relationship between anxiety and attitude toward FgSS would be examined. In an attempt to bridge this gap, this study aims to investigate students' attitudes and anxiety levels after the implementation of Flipgrid in a distance learning speaking class and also to scrutinize their correlation with students ' Flipgrid speaking success (FgSS) or the students' achievement scores in English speaking class. This attempt revealed the authentic reality of a speaking classroom activity conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, the research questions can be formulated as follows: 1. What are the students' attitudes and the students' anxiety levels towards the implementation of Flipgrid in an online English-speaking class? 2. Is there any correlation between students' attitudes and anxiety towards students' FgSS? 3. Which correlates more to FgSS in distance learning, students' attitude or anxiety?

Research methodology
The current study employed a quantitative technique with a correlational design to assess the correlation between two or more variables (Creswell, 2014). The purpose of this study was to see if there were any significant correlations between students' attitudes, anxiety levels, and speaking success after using Flipgrid in a speaking class.
A questionnaire eliciting students' attitudes, another questionnaire regarding students' anxiety level, and a Cambridge speaking test with CEFR assessment frameworks were administered to fifty-four English Department students enrolled in two speaking classes in the third semester of the 2021/2022 academic year of a public university in East Java, Indonesia. The attitude questionnaire was adapted from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in Shin and Yunus's (2021) study, then modified to meet the context of the study. In her High Possibility Classroom Model, Hunter (2015) emphasizes three factors in implementing technology in the classroom. First, the tangible benefit of using technology (perceived utility). Second, it is the more possibilities for students to participate at an appropriate level (perceived ease of use). Finally, the third is whether it stimulates greater community participation (self-reflection toward using and intention to use). Thus, the TAM adaptation matched the three requirements for investigating the role of Flipgrid in the speaking class. Furthermore, Shin and Yunus's framework was used since their study investigated the students' attitudes toward speaking in the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) class. The attitude questionnaire contained 20 statements comprising perceived usefulness (questions no. 1,2,3,6,8,9,10,11,16), perceived ease of use (questions no. 4,5), self-reflection toward using (questions no. 7, 12, 18, 19), and intention to use (questions no. 13, 14, 15, 17, 20) as seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1 Conceptual Model of Students' Attitude Toward the Implementation of Flipgrid
The anxiety questionnaire consisted of 20 questions derived from FLCAS by Horwitz (2001) with modifications to fit the context of the study. The questionnaires contained 5-Likert scale choices from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The FgSS was indicated by the average score perceived from the students' first task (topic: famous person), the students' second task (topic: discovery and innovation), and the students' mid-term test task (topic: fashion interview) as standardized by the Cambridge oral assessment rubric, adapted to match the CEFR. The topics of the tasks were set to meet the established course learning outcome (CLO) as stated in the course profile. The selected speaking class as the research subject had a level of A2. Each student was graded on the CEFR ranges of accuracy, fluency, interaction, and coherence. The test of instrument reliability was no longer required because the instruments had been adopted from prior research.
The data analysis was conducted in three steps: 1) analyzing the students' attitude toward FgSS as well as analyzing their correlation; 2) analyzing the students' anxiety level toward FgSS as well as analyzing their correlation; and 3) comparing the Pearson correlation scores perceived from FgSS-attitude correlation and FgSS-anxiety correlation. In order to notice the students' attitude, the mean score perceived from the attitude questionnaire was used and measured according to Figure 2.

Figure 2 Description of Students' Questionnaire Attitude Mean Score
Moreover, the mean score of students' anxiety questionnaire was measured by anxiety level description developed by Colbeck (2011) as can be seen in Table 1.

Categories Range of points Indication
Very Low 4.1-5.0 Indicates very low anxiety in speaking.
Low 3.1-4.0 Indicates a moderately low level of anxiety in speaking.
Moderate 2.1-3.0 Suggests moderate anxiety in most speaking performance situations but no severe that the individual cannot cope and be a successful speaker.
High 1.1-2.0 Suggests moderately high anxiety in speaking. People with such scores will tend to avoid public speaking.
Very High 0.0-1.0 Indicates very high anxiety in speaking. People with these scores will go to considerable lengths to avoid all types of public speaking situations. Note. The students' anxiety level description was adapted from Colbeck (2011) All the quantitative analyses were processed using SPSS 23 version. Figure 3 presents the correlation framework between variables.

Figure 3
Conceptual Model of Correlations Among Students' Attitude, Anxiety, and Speaking Success Toward the Implementation of Flipgrid

Results
The current study sought to investigate students' attitudes and anxiety levels following the adoption of Flipgrid in a speaking class, as well as their correlation with students' speaking success. Therefore, the results would be described to show students' attitudes and anxiety levels toward the implementation of Flipgrid in an online English-speaking class, the correlation between students' attitudes and anxiety and their FgSS, and the predictor that has a higher correlation coefficient to students' FgSS.

The Students' Attitudes and the Students' Anxiety Level Towards the Implementation of Flipgrid in an Online English-speaking Class
Both the questionnaires to assess students' attitudes and anxiety levels were administered at the same time following the implementation of Flipgrid-based speaking performance. Table 2 shows the mean scores of the students' responses to the attitude questionnaire.  Table 2 shows that the vast majority of students had positive attitudes toward the use of Flipgrid in speaking class. Favorable attitudes are demonstrated 3.98 points as the average mean score from the students (see table 2 and figure 2).
The high mean of a positive attitude toward FgSS had been indicated by students' beliefs that they would continue using Flipgrid in future for learning speaking (4.43) since it can be good learning assistance (4.43) as well as creating English speaking learning more effective (4.37) and easier (4.30). Besides, Flipgrid could increase their confidence (4.26), increase effectiveness in communicating with teachers (4.22), improve public speaking skill (4.19), maintain their commitment to learn (4.15), and encourage them to speak (4.09). The lowest mean score of students' attitudes toward FgSS was about students' doubt to use Flipgrid for speaking practice (3.11). However, this low mean score was still above the average mean score (see figure 2) indicated that students still had a positive attitude toward FgSS.  Table 3 reveals that when using Flipgrid, most students reported decreased anxiousness throughout their speaking performances. The average student responses (3.97 points) support this result. The highest mean score in the anxiety questionnaire means the lowest anxiety that students experienced in the FgSS course (see table 3). Students' low levels of anxiety were evidenced by the following responses as FgSS' could provide more time to prepare (4.35), remove their anxiousness (4.24), improve relaxation (4.20), overcome speaking anxiety (4.20), maintain communication with the teacher virtually (4.20), improve students' ability to manage anxiety during public speaking (4.15), and increase students' confidence (4.07). According to table 1, the speaking anxiety level, this result determined the amount of anxiety among students. As a result, students' anxiety levels were low, as demonstrated by the mean anxiety level score of 3.1-4.0. Furthermore, descriptive analysis was performed using SPSS on the scores perceived from the attitude and anxiety questionnaires, as well as the students' FgSS. Table 4 shows the results of the analysis. The number of students who participated in this study was consistent (N = 54) during the distribution of the questionnaire and FgSS assessments, as shown in Table 4. Among the three variables, students' FgSS had the biggest mean score and the lowest standard deviation, implying homogeneous speaking competence.

The correlation between students' attitudes and anxiety toward students' FgSS
The second research objective of this study was to examine the relationship between students' attitudes and their anxiety about their FgSS. To achieve this, Pearson correlations were calculated using SPSS 23 by importing students' attitude data, anxiety level data, and speaking success data (Flipgrid speaking performance scores).
Before doing the correlation statistical analysis, SPSS 23 was used to perform a normality test on the attitude, anxiety, and FgSS scores. The test result showed that all variable scores utilized in this study were normally distributed, since the significance score was more than 0.05, as shown in table 5. Note. * This is a lower bound of the true significance.

a. Lilliefors Significance Correction
To achieve the study's goal of determining the correlations between students' attitudes and anxieties and their FgSS, another Pearson correlation analysis using SPSS 23 was performed on the same data. Table 6 shows the results of the statistical study. Note.** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). Table 6 reveals a correlation between students' attitudes and FgSS, as evidenced by the 0.00 significance score (score less than =0.05). Similarly, students' anxiety has a correlation with their FgSS, as evidenced by a 0.00 significance value less than =0.05. Furthermore, the correlation coefficients for students' attitudes and FgSS were positive, while the correlation coefficients for students' anxiousness and FgSS were negative. Figure 4 gives a description of the correlations of the variables.

Figure 4 The Graphic of Students' Attitude-FgSS Correlation and Students' Anxiety-FgSS Correlation
Note. Graphic of attitude-FgSS correlation (left) and graphic of anxiety-FgSS correlation (right) downloaded from SPSS 24 version.

Predictor with stronger correlation to students' FgSS
According to the statistical analysis in the previous results, students' anxiety becomes the predictor with a higher correlation (r = -0.810) than students' attitude (r = 0.642) toward the students' FgSS.

Table 7
Correlation Coefficient Guideline Furthermore, according to the correlation coefficient guideline (see table 7) for measuring the amount of strength of variable relationship, students' anxiety has a very strong negative correlation with students' FgSS, with r = -0.810. Meanwhile, students' attitudes have a strong positive correlation with FgSS, with r = 0.642. It suggests that students' attitudes have a weaker correlation with their FgSS than students' anxiety. This is also demonstrated by the steepness of the correlation of variables in figure 4. Figure  4 illustrates that the linear graph for students' anxiety-FgSS correlation is steeper than the linear graph for students' attitude-FgSS correlation. The steeper the line in graphic in this study, the stronger the correlation between the variable.

Discussion
From the results, we can see that Flipgrid is an effective platform for facilitating students' interaction and communication in a digital setting. The opportunity to watch and hear video presentations and students' responses enhance the discussion. Flipgrid implies the ability to have students' voices heard through a creative approach, which is especially important for introverted students or those who need the opportunity for reflective practice. Students were encouraged to self-reflect and re-record videos to improve their English, content, accuracy, intonation, and fluency before sharing them (Peterson, et al., 2020). Above all, Flipgrid's adaptability is also appreciated by students (Neves & Hillman, 2017). Likewise, successful Flipgrid navigation boosts students' technology self-efficacy (Bartlett, 2018), allowing them to proceed with confidence in their abilities to use digital tools in their learning, especially when it comes to speaking. The design is user-friendly and intuitive. The number of potential themes is enormous, both for depth and breadth. Participants can jump immediately into the discussion and even include links to videos to back up their claims. Educators and students engage in brief video presentations using a constructivist learning approach. Teachers may engage in a range of methods to fulfill the needs of their classroom. Flipgrid may contribute boosting students' ease of learning and promote pedagogical advancement, as well as embracing ICT into the classroom.
Over a video discussion board, Flipgrid shows that it is possible to provide each student a voice to express themselves (Flipgrid, n.d.). Educators provide the learners with a conversational prompt to watch, after which they are given time to consider what they are being asked to participate in, identify appropriate materials to support their contribution, and process the arguments before submitting them (Carr & Kruggle, 2020). Educators can also include additional materials, such as links to readings or films to watch before replying. Using the rubric, for example, the teacher can ensure what they want to assess for the class session, and the students may use the speaking rubric to guide their performance. This strategy not only supports pedagogy but also leads students away from memorization and moves toward comprehension.
When contemplating the present pandemic crisis, it is clear how high the demand for online learning and flexible digital tools to mediate distance has become necessary (Romero-Ivanova et al., 2020). When it comes to online learning, there is an unequivocal sense that it frequently leaves students feeling alienated and disconnected from their peers (Bower et al., 2015). As a social learning tool, Flipgrid has numerous implications for educational practice. The ability to link with a wide range of platform partners, such as Adobe or Google (Docs, Classroom, Slides), can result in tools that work in unison for instructors and learners using learning management systems (Green & Green, 2018).
Flipgrid supports accessibility and digital citizenship by providing chances for involvement and increasing connectedness to bridge a gap between a traditional classroom and online learning (Carr & Kruggle, 2020;Green & Green, 2017;Johnson & Skarphol, 2018;Romera-Ivanova et al., 2020). Additionally, it can be used by educators to conduct formative assessments. (Carr & Kruggle, 2020) on any number of topics and store them in one easily accessible grid or group.
To correlate with the benefits of FgSS, the results of the present research complement prior research that found that the majority of students had a positive attitude towards the use of Flipgrid in speaking class (Edward & Lane, 2021;Shin & Yunus, 2021). According to Syahrizal and Pamungkas (2021), Flipgrid encourages learners to have a more optimistic mindset than a negative one. More than half of the students (mean = 4.37, see Table 2, no 3) agreed that Flipgrid is an effective English learning tool for improving speaking fluency and pronunciation (Nurrida et al., 2021). This boosted students' confidence in speaking (Hashim et al., 2018;McClure & McAndrews, 2016). Stoszkowski defended the usage of Flipgrid in speaking classes, claiming that it allows students to practice and become more self-sufficient in their English speaking, as well as making them more committed to their English learning (2018). In their study, the majority of students felt that Flipgrid would continue to assist them to improve their speaking skills by allowing them to practice English speaking in the future (Tuyet & Kang, 2020).
Another psychological factor that may be correlated with the students' speaking performance is anxiety. Dung and Hung (2020) stated that students with high anxiety gained lower Flipgrid speaking proficiency. Henceforth, the ability to control anxiety plays a pivotal role in the students' success in speaking performance (Al-Khotaba et al., 2019;Belegdair, 2015).
Similar to the students' attitude toward FgSS, in this study, students experienced low anxiety during the implementation of Flipgrid in speaking course. This means that there was a reduction in anxiety among students in learning English speaking after using Flipgrid. This result supports Tuyet and According to Khang's (2020) study, Flipgrid has successfully reduced students' fear of speaking. Some instances in the current investigation suggested that the students had a low level of anxiousness. When participants forgot what and how to say during a presentation, using Flipgrid did not make them nervous or frightened (Hasibuan & Irzawati, 2019). The students were not worried if the teacher witnessed their public speaking performance. Students were similarly unconcerned about their peers seeing their speaking act. Second, Flipgrid makes the majority of students feel more at ease, making them less demotivated to speak up in class and allowing them to express themselves more freely (Octarani, 2021). Third, since they have more time on Flipgrid, examining their recordings and evaluating their speaking qualities, than when they perform in class, they become readier and relaxed in speaking performance. Video recording engages students throughout the learning process and it enhances students' performance and confidence. As a corollary, students are convinced that Flipgrid can overcome and attenuate students' public speaking anxieties (Petersen et al., 2020). They did not feel anxious when speaking in a presentation via Flipgrid. Lastly, Flipgrid had increased students' eagerness and confidence to communicate with teachers virtually more than offline (Tuyet & Khang, 2020).
Attitude and anxiety are both psychological factors that are generally correlated to FgSS. Both statistics are connected with FgSS, according to the results of this study, albeit in distinct correlation directions and strengths. Students' attitudes toward FgSS are positively correlated. Primary students in a CEFR classroom exhibited a highly positive attitude towards utilizing Flipgrid to improve their English-speaking abilities, according to Shin and Yunus (2021). Chien (2021) backs up this claim by pointing out that attitude has a strong relationship (r = 0.711, n = 105, p 0.01) with Japanese first-year students' Flipgrid speaking. Students' anxiety, on the other hand, has a negative correlation with FgSS, which correspond to the results of Tuyet and Kang's (2020) research. According to Pratiwi and Manurung (2019), anxiety shows a highly negative connection (r = -0.092) with students' speaking achievement. It indicates that when students' anxiety levels decrease, their ability to talk improves. Conversely, the students' speaking success will fall upon the increase in students' anxiety level. Moreover, observing both attitude and anxiety correlation coefficients as depicted in figure 4, it is demonstrated that anxiety had a stronger correlation toward FgSS than attitude. However, further study is still needed to confirm these results as well as know why anxiety has a stronger correlation than attitude.

Conclusions
Reflecting the objectives of the present study to delve into students' attitudes and anxiety levels following the deployment of Flipgrid in two speaking classes, to investigate their correlation to students ' Flipgrid speaking success (FgSS), and to unravel which of them correlates more to FgSS, the conclusions are presented following this order. First, students had positive attitude toward FgSS as shown by 3.98 mean score or portraying 79.6% agreement toward deployment of Flipgrid in a speaking class. Similarly, students had low anxiety when speaking on Flipgrid, as seen by their 3.97 anxiety score. These mean that both students' attitude and anxiety were in favourable levels: positive attitude level and low anxiety level to support FgSS in EFL teaching practice. Second, according to the Pearson correlation statistical calculation, students' attitude and anxiety were correlated to FgSS with different charactersitics. Students' FgSS was positively correlated to students' attitude with Pearson correlation score of r = 0.642. While, students' anxiety was correlated negatively to students' FgSS with Pearson correlation score of r = (-)0.810. These were supported by some previous studies (Edward & Lane, 2021;Hasibuan & Irzawati, 2019;Khang, 2020;Shin & Yunus, 2021). Third, comparing both psychological factors' Pearson correlation scores, students' anxiety had a higher correlation with FgSS (r = (-)0.810, indicating a very strong level of correlation) than their attitude (r = 0.642, showing a strong level of correlation). Henceforth, it was understood that students' anxiety correlated more to FgSS than students' attitude.
Given the current study's limitations, which covered a small number of students and did not qualitatively analyze students' reasons for their attitude and anxiety during FgSS, further research is needed to reveal them. According to the results of this study, educators should look into the advantages of technology in mediating learning during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and scaffold students' psychological qualities. It also paves the way for future research linking psychological features to other types of technology or correlating several psychological elements with FgSS.