Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to assess practices and challenges of vocabulary teaching and
learning strategies used by EFL teachers and students: The case of grade 8 students of Gosu
Kora Primary School in Ambo town. The study particularly, find out the practice of vocabulary
teaching and learning strategies, examine to what extent teachers practically use vocabulary
teaching strategies in EFL classes and students use vocabulary learning strategies in class and
identify the major factors that might affect the implementation of vocabulary teaching and
learning strategies in EFL classes. To this end, the study employed which involves both
quantitative and qualitative methods. The researcher selected 10 English Language teachers
from his school in order to collect information through interview, questionnaire and classroom
observation. In addition, data were collected from 80 randomly chosen students through
questionnaire. Thus, the collected data employed in analysing the quantitative and qualitative
data analysed qualitatively. The results of the study showed that teachers were not capable
enough on the practicing vocabulary teaching strategies in EFL classes and students had not
willing to learn vocabulary in class. In addition, there was lack of practical skills on
implementing different types of vocabulary teaching strategies in EFL classes according to their
suitability. Furthermore, the study show that they rarely practiced these strategies during
vocabulary instruction. Generally, the practices of vocabulary teaching and learning strategies
were not given sufficient attention at Gosu Kora primary School. Thus, the study indicated that
English teachers did not practice and use to minimize challenges they face in EFL classes and
students did not practice well this strategies. Finally, based on the findings, the researcher
recommended that creating meaningful vocabulary teaching opportunities through different
vocabulary teaching strategies should be practiced widely in Gosu Kora primary school.
