This study was intended to examine continuous professional development needs and challenges of primary schools English language teachers in the city administration of Addis Ababa. Mixed method design was employed to gather information in the study. This method was selected because it gave opportunity to compensate the weaknesses of using an instrument and corroborate information from the other tools. The data was collected from teachers, principals and trainers. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data pertinent to answer the research questions. Two types of questionnaires were employed in the study. One was self-designed which was applied to survey the teachers’ continuous professional development needs and challenges. The other was adapted questionnaire and used to collect information about the teachers’ perceived English language proficiency in speaking, listening, reading and writing. Hence, 50 randomly selected primary school English language teachers filled in the self-designed and adapted questionnaires. Interview was conducted with 5 volunteer English language teachers who participated in the interview. 4 principals and 3 trainers were interviewed to corroborate the data collected from the English language teachers. Based on the information collected from the instruments, explanatory (Quan-qua) method was employed to analyze the data. First quantitative data from the surveys were analyzed using version SPSS 21. Then the qualitative data were analyzed thematically and combined with the survey results to answer the research questions. As a result it was found that primary English language teachers (the participants) were at high need of continuous professional development in English language proficiency especially in speaking skills and teaching methodology. Furthermore, the teachers had institutional and personal challenges to enhance their professional knowledge through participating on going professional development activities.