Efl Teachers’ Awareness, Practice and the Challenge of Using Contextual Clues to Teach Vocabulary: The Case Of English Language Teachers At Secondary Schools Around Tarcha Zuriya Woreda In Focus

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.