چکیده:
Conversation is a unique human activity through which people engage in socialinteraction and though it is constructed on a turn-by-turn basis, it actually proceeds without
a predetermined cognitive map. Memorizing dialogues referring to different situations will not
be of much benefit for those who wish to engage in such conversations as they are context
bound, negotiative, interpersonal and constantly changing.
This needs more effort on the part of both teachers and students as finding out efficient
ways for teaching conversation. Foreign language learning has always been a great concern
not only for teachers but also for students who are looking forward to speak the foreign
language in a good way.
In fact, every teacher has some kind of theoretical principles which function as a frame
for his ideas of methods and techniques for teaching and learning English in the classroom.
The three principal views in this respect are:
1. The structural view which treats language as a system of structurally related
elements to code meaning (e.g. grammar).
2. The functional view which sees language as a vehicle to express or accomplish a
certain function, such as requesting something, and
3. The interactive view which sees language as a vehicle for the creation
and maintenance of social relations, focusing on patterns of moves, acts, negotiation
and interaction found in conversational exchanges (Richards and Rodgers, 2001: 3).
The history of language teaching covers a variety of methods to teaching a foreign
language. These methods and techniques of language instruction have evolved and shaped
language teaching as it is known it. Some of these methods have fallen into relative
obscurity and others are widely used. In this research two methods are going to be dealt
with; the audio-lingual method and the communicative one since they are the mainly
methods used in Iraqi foreign language classes but first it is necessary to clarify in detail
what conversation is: