ASSESSING EFL TEACHERS’ UNDERSTANDING AND PRRACTICES OF VOCABULARY TEACHING: THE CASE OF GRADE NINE AT WOREILU SECONDARY AND PREPARATORY SCHOOL

Abstract

This study attempted to assess EFL teachers understanding and practice of vocabulary teaching at Woreilu Secondary and Preparatory School grade nine in focus .For this, the researcher tried to examine teachers understanding of vocabulary teaching , practices of vocabulary teaching by teachers ,and which types of approaches are most frequently used to teach vocabulary in the actual classroom practice .Descriptive case study design was employed .The data were collected from five grade nine EFL teachers using two tools : interview ,and classroom observation .Both qualitative and quantitative data analysis were used to analyze the data .The result of the study depicts that teachers had good theoretical understanding of vocabulary teaching approaches and its importance for vocabulary teaching in EFL classes .Although there are a number of approaches to teach vocabulary, teachers were not committed to use them appropriately and frequently. They rely on some of them for the actual class room practice. As a result ,the assessment of EFL teachers understanding and practice of vocabulary teaching approach at this school in relation to vocabulary teaching approach were found to be less practiced by EFL teachers .Based on the findings of the inquiry , it is recommended that teachers should use varieties of vocabulary teaching approach , and teachers theoretical understanding of vocabulary teaching approach did not match or coincide with their vocabulary teaching approach practice in the classroom.Therefore, they should employ varieties of vocabulary teaching approaches as far as their theoretical understanding of vocabulary teaching approaches were concerned.