ASSESSING THE PRACTICE OF VOCABULARY TEACHING BY EFL TEACHERS: THE CASE OF GRADE ELEVEN AT ARERTY PREPARATORY SCHOOL

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the practice of vocabulary teaching by EFL teachers at Arerty Preparatory school of grade eleven. For this the researcher tried to find out teachers‟ views and knowledge on the theoretical perspective of vocabulary teaching, the aspects of vocabulary activities stressed by teachers, which approaches are most frequently used to teach vocabulary, the challenges frequently affecting teachers during vocabulary teaching in the classroom, and the gaps that may exist between the teachers‟ views on vocabulary teaching and the actual classroom practice. Descriptive case study design was employed. The data were collected from 5 grade eleven English teachers using three tools: questionnaires, classroom observation and semi- structured interview. Both quantitative and qualitative data analysis were employed to analyze the data. The study shows that teachers were capable enough on the knowledge and theoretical orientation of the importance of vocabulary teaching in EFL classes. Even though there are a number of approaches to teach vocabulary, teachers were not committed to use them appropriately and frequently. They only depend on some of them. They also stressed on some of the aspects of vocabulary activities even these were also repeated. There were found a number of challenges frequently affecting teachers to teach vocabulary. The results also indicted that there were gaps existed between the teachers‟ views on vocabulary teaching and actual classroom practices. As a result, the assessment of the practice of vocabulary teaching at this school in relation to the above cases was found to be less practiced by EFL teachers .Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that teachers should be aware of the use of verities of vocabulary teaching approaches, stressed on the different aspects of vocabulary activities, and coincide their perceptions regarding to vocabulary teaching with their actual practice in the classroom.