Abstract:
The purpose of this research is to assess the most commonly used teachers‟ vocabulary teaching
strategies in EFL classes at Ambo secondary school of grade nine. The study employed
descriptive survey study design, which involves both quantitative and qualitative approaches.
Accordingly, Ambo Secondary School was selected purposely. Four English teachers who teach
grade 9 were selected via available sampling techniques for the interview, and for classroom
observation. In addition, the data were collected through questionnaires from 100 students
randomly selected. Thus, descriptive statistics using frequencies and percentages were
employed in analyzing the quantitative data and the qualitative data were analyzed qualitatively
and narrated in terms of words. The results of the study revealed that the teachers rarely
practice vocabulary teaching strategies during vocabulary instruction, low concern and
practices on the implementation of different types of vocabulary teaching strategies in EFL
classes. Additionally, it was found that using dictionaries, context clues and direct translation
were the most commonly used vocabulary teaching strategies by the teachers. Moreover, the
findings show that factors that hinder teachers‟ practice of vocabulary teaching strategies
include teachers‟ related factors (lack of in-service training on vocabulary teaching strategies
and prefer old trends instead of Communicative Language teaching). Students‟ related factors
include students‟ reluctance in participating in vocabulary lessons, and constraints of
vocabulary teaching material. In short, the practices of vocabulary teaching strategies were not
given sufficient attention by English teachers at Ambo Secondary School. Thus, English teachers
of Ambo Secondary School of grade nine are recommended to design and should use different
vocabulary teaching strategies that help their students to develop their English vocabulary
