Abstract
Teaching vocabulary to EFL learners is thought to be an integral part which involves not only the meaning and closer definition of the words, but also the correct use in the right contexts. Considering the need of the vocabulary, EFL in Saudi Arabia has largely focused on vocabulary teaching setting various standards for different academic levels of the students. The present study aims to investigate the techniques employed by the EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia to teach vocabulary and the factors that affect the process. Qualitative research was adopted by employing semi-structured interviews from 10 randomly selected EFL teachers working in a university in Saudi Arabia. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The data generated four major themes including aspects of vocabulary development, decontextualizing techniques, semi-contextualizing techniques and fully contextualizing techniques. The findings show that EFL teachers are aware of various techniques to teach vocabulary; however, they fail to implement those techniques in EFL classes for various reasons which include workload, test-driven curriculum, busy schedules and so forth. The study found that EFL teachers do not encourage the contextualizing technique in the class; besides, the EFL learners rely heavily on traditional dictionaries, flashcards and rote-learn and memorize the word lists. Based on the findings, the study recommends that the EFL teachers need to reassess their techniques presently used by them in order to help the EFL learners improve their vocabulary in context.
Highlights
Since the inception of teaching English in KSA in 1927, vocabulary teaching practice has become the conventional part of Saudi education system (Assah, 1969, cited in Al-Hazemi, 1993)
Shen (2008) notes that EFL learners‟ knowledge of vocabulary directs learning of all four skills which is supported by a study (Nation, 1990) telling more vocabulary size leads to better reading performance
The first theme relates to „aspect of vocabulary development‟; the second theme is de-contextualizing techniques; the third refers to semi-contextualizing while the last theme is related to fully contextualizing techniques
Summary
Since the inception of teaching English in KSA in 1927, vocabulary teaching practice has become the conventional part of Saudi education system (Assah, 1969, cited in Al-Hazemi, 1993). Two different studies have investigated Saudi students‟ vocabulary knowledge: Al-Hazemi (1993) and Al-Bogami (1995) These two investigations showed that Saudi school students have low and insufficient vocabulary knowledge. Al-Bogami‟s (1995) research stands in favor of Al-Hazemi‟s and maintains that Saudi students perform poorly in vocabulary size examination. This shows that most of the learners leave high school with vocabulary knowledge that‟s insufficient and ineffective for communication (Nation, 2001). Shen (2008) notes that EFL learners‟ knowledge of vocabulary directs learning of all four skills which is supported by a study (Nation, 1990) telling more vocabulary size leads to better reading performance. Effective vocabulary building is deemed at the center of foreign language learning
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