Integrating Computer Assisted Language Teaching to Enhance the Oral Skills of Learners in German as a Foreign Language

Abstract

Foreign language acquisition became an essential component in the modern society. The University of Kelaniya plays a major role in enhancing foreign languages for both local and international students willing to study Japanese, French, German, Chinese, Korean and Russian. This article reviews the results of a study conducted on an online learning platform to develop the communication skills of German language learners. The objective of this paper is to examine the improvement of the oral skills of the General Degree second year German learning students at the University of Kelaniya through computer-assisted language learning. Online learning platforms were used over a period of time in several departments at the University. The present study broadens the oral skills of learners by using online learning platform as they have lack of time in the lectures to enhance their orals skills. Furthermore most of the students don’t prefer to speak in German during learning sessions as they have got used to the teacher centered learning at the school, where they have given less opportunity to engage in the learning progress actively. The research is executed through interviews with the General Degree second year German learning students and in addition to that, a pretest and posttest were conducted to investigate the improvement of the communication skills of the learners. The learners were given oral exercises based on selected topics from the textbook and they are expected to speak five minutes on each given topic and submit it to the online platform. The learner’s oral skills were evaluated through a guideline, which tests the learner’s pronunciation skills, and marks were given for grammar, coherence, content and the use of vocabulary. The students were given a feedback on their communication errors with instructions to improve their oral skills. Through the pretest, it was revealed that the students make most of the errors due to pronunciations and grammar mistakes and due to lack of vocabulary. Apart from that, the students have difficulties in expressing their opinions. After utilizing the online platform, the results of the posttest conveyed that they have made less error, improved their communication skills, and got used to language without any fear