Abstract:

The idea of one common language for all mankind, like many other innovations, appeared for the first time in European thought during the Renaissance. The world, not just Europe, is now facing a challenge. While English has become the Latin of the contemporary world, such a position, one can say in the light of historical experience, has always been precarious. The status of the English language as the lingua franca of the global information society of today is beyond dispute, but what is not so clear is whether it is capable of fulfilling that role efficiently. English, at least now and the foreseeable future holds preferential status because it is studied as a second language by more people than any other human language. That is why it has become the global lingua franca-the language of science, technology, commerce, and other professional endeavors.
The aim of conversation classes in the English department at the college of languages is to teach students how to communicate in spoken English. This means teaching them this lingua franca; i.e. English. The curriculum includes English conversation classes. Unfortunately, conversation classes are, often, taught by non native speakers of English. This is one of the serious problems facing our students. The present paper shows the nature of these problems and offers some suggestions to solve these problems. The procedure carried out, in this paper, depends on three questioners. The first one is conducted to students of the second and third year. The second is for the teachers of language (some including the researcher taught conversation). The third is for the teachers of literature. The researcher’s observation while teaching conversation classes throughout many years (6 years) are taken into consideration when coming to the conclusions. With the analysis of the questioners and the outcome of the interviews, conclusions are found and suggestions are made.