COMPUTER ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE SPEAKING SKILLS (Pages 90-98) by Mr. Sunder Reddy. D in THE INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH SPECIALIST / ISSN: 2350-1499 (Online); 2350-0751 (Print)

Effective communications is the mantra in the present age of globalization which has brought about great changes and stressed on the communicative aspect of the language. This is the age of technology and computer plays a vital role in the academics also. It is very rare to find a person who cannot use mobile and this prompts us to say that technology permeated into all aspects of society and English language learning and teaching is no exception. Now that the computer and the web.2. Tools are at the disposal of the learner and teacher, the learning process is geared towards the integration of technology into the teaching and learning methods. The technology will supplement the existing methods and will not replace them. It gives room to integrate text, graphics, audio, and motion video in all combinations. In order to meet the needs of the learners and teachers the researchers proposes Computer- Assisted Language Learning (CALL) method. This study aims to discover the extent to which CALL activities influence speaking skills of English learners. The tool that is used is podcasting. According to the well-known ELT professional, Nik Peachey ( 2012) , “A podcast is stored on the web as a digital sound file and this sound file can then be transferred to any computer or digital device, such as an iPod or MP3 player”. Not only was the podcast viewed as an easy method by the instructor, the students also viewed podcasting as a positive tool. The students themselves can create the podcasts using MP3 sound file format. These podcasts can be used in English classroom or computer lab to supplement course book. The conversations are more authentic and so the language is more natural. They therefore provide a refreshing alternative to content. Key-words: Speaking Skills, CALL, Technology, podcasts, computer.