Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate EFL teachers’ awareness, practice and challenges of
using contextual clues to teach vocabulary lesson and the challenges they face at secondary
schools of Tarcha Zuriya Woreda. In this study, descriptive research design and mixed method of
research were employed. The study was conducted in six secondary schools at Tarcha Zuria
Woreda. Moreover, 40 English teachers were participants in the study. Comprehensive sampling
technique was employed to select EFL teachers. The data of the study were collected through
questionnaire, interview and classroom observation. The gathered data were analyzed by using
percentage, mean score and narration. The major findings of this study indicated that EFL
teachers’ failure to practice and to contextualize vocabulary teaching, to realize vocabulary
teaching has to be given prime consideration in the class, to use different examples to help
students understand the meaning and to enable learners to remember words once they are
learned are very essential. Moreover, EFL teachers less practice of vocabulary teaching since
they rarely practice during vocabulary instruction, they rarely practice of giving clues teaching
lesson, they rarely give opportunities to their students to communicate with them and with their
peers, their failure to practice vocabulary according to their suitability, they rarely teach
students, they rarely focus on collocation strategies, they rarely contextualize vocabulary
teaching to enhance their students’ vocabulary knowledge through different tasks and they
rarely practice the types of contextual clues to familiarize students with unfamiliar words in the
class. The possible suggestions to overcome the identified problems focused on assigning
qualified English teachers, provide adequate training for English language teacher at university
or college, organize training that focuses on vocabulary teaching strategies, motivating students
to develop their vocabulary skills through continuous practices, providing additional vocabulary
tasks to cover aspects of vocabulary, clearly stating vocabulary learning objectives, introducing
and practicing various vocabulary learning tasks in English classrooms.
