THE IMPORTANCE OF ELT IN THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN LIBYA

English, which has attained the status of a lingua franca, continues to have its sway as a dominant language of power in global commerce, Science, technology and communication. Hence the need for learning and teaching English has become inevitable. In the wake of the twenty-first century, an alarm of economic crisis has been sounded at the global level. In this scenario, those nations which have been blessed with abundant natural resources enjoy greater potential for economic affluence than other countries. If they make use of English as a powerful tool for their commercial interactions with other countries, greater advantages could be achieved. Hence nations which are aware of this opportunity, including the Arab countries, have designed their academic curricula of teaching English to gear up their economic development. Libya is one of the Arab countries where the government has invested a large amount of money for education, with special thrust on ELT in schools and universities, with the sole aim of enhancing its economic, social and educational status. For the achievement of this target of economic prosperity, appropriate syllabi, effective learning strategies and teaching methodologies have been evolved to tap the resources and to bring out the special capacities of Libyan students. But there are hurdles to cross in the acquisition of the four basic language skills in English along with the cultivation of soft skills. However, this Herculean task needs to be done for the growth and prosperity of Libya. Hence this paper focuses on the importance of English Language Teaching (ELT) for the economic development in Libya, in the context of its socio - economic conditions with suggestions for further progress.