Abstract:
The purpose of this research is to assess of vocabulary teaching strategies employed by EFL
teachers at Haro Lago Secondary School. The study particularly, tried to find out teachers’
knowledge on the theoretical perspective of vocabulary teaching strategies, examine to what
extent teachers practically use vocabulary teaching strategies in EFL classes and identify the
major factors that might hamper the implementation of vocabulary teaching strategies in EFL
classes. To this end, the study employed descriptive survey method, which involves both
quantitative and qualitative methods. Accordingly, Haro Lago Secondary School was selected
through availability sampling. Then, 6 English teachers from grade 9 were selected purposefully
for classroom observation, four teachers selected for interview from grade 10-12. In addition,
data were collected from 60 randomly chosen students through questionnaire. Thus, descriptive
statistics using frequencies and percentages were employed in analyzing the quantitative data
and the qualitative data were analyzed qualitatively. Finally, based on the findings, the
researcher recommended that creating meaningful vocabulary teaching opportunities through
different vocabulary teaching strategies should be practiced widely in the school. The results of
the study reveal that the teachers were not capable enough on the knowledge and the theoretical
orientations of vocabulary teaching strategies employed by EFL classes. In addition, it was
found that the teachers lacked practical skills on the implementation of different types of
vocabulary teaching strategies employed by EFL classes according to their suitability.
Furthermore, the study revealed that they rarely practiced these strategies during vocabulary
instruction. Generally, the employed of vocabulary teaching strategies were not given sufficient
attention at Haro Lago Secondary School. Thus, the study indicated that the English teachers
didn’t employee different vocabulary teaching strategies in EFL classes. Finally some
recommendations were drawn based on the findings. It would be advisable for the teachers to
use vocabulary teaching strategies and implement them as much as possible when they teach
vocabulary employed by EFL classes; the students need to be aware of the advantages of
vocabulary learning through different strategies to their daily life, the school administration
should exert every effort to provide adequate teaching materials for the teachers.
