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Overcoming Challenges of Teaching Large Group Language Classes at University Through Computer Aided Language Learning

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Book cover The Impact of the 4th Industrial Revolution on Engineering Education (ICL 2019)

Part of the book series: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ((AISC,volume 1135))

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Abstract

With ever increasing demand for competence in foreign languages the number of students selecting a language as one of the main subjects at undergraduate level has dramatically increased over the last decade. The Department of Modern Languages of University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka offers German, French, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Korean as main subjects for the Bachelors’ Degree. The current student population of the department exceeds 1500 with more demand for languages that do not require prior knowledge i.e. German, Chinese and Korean. Among main challenges faced by the teaching staff are imparting expected competencies within the limited number of hours allocated for language teaching, lack of appropriate classrooms to accommodate large groups of learners, monitoring student progress and evaluation of language skills as well as administering of oral and aural tests. This paper presents results of a study on the first-year students of German as a Foreign Language to overcome the challenges of teaching large classes of students by integrating Computer Aided Language Learning.

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Correspondence to Neelakshi Chandrasena Premawardhena .

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Premawardhena, N.C. (2020). Overcoming Challenges of Teaching Large Group Language Classes at University Through Computer Aided Language Learning. In: Auer, M., Hortsch, H., Sethakul, P. (eds) The Impact of the 4th Industrial Revolution on Engineering Education. ICL 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1135. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40271-6_63

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