| THE PROBLEM: The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore EFL teachers' perceptions of vocabulary acquisition and instruction and to identify their use of vocabulary learning strategies.;METHOD: Three survey questionnaires were utilized to collect quantitative data and interviews were employed to obtain qualitative data to answer the six research questions. A total of 49 participants participated in the study, seven of whom were interviewed.;RESULTS: The findings of this study reveal that the participants reported using or having used a large number of vocabulary learning strategies, among which guessing unknown words from context, monolingual dictionary use, and learning new words in an English sentence were reported as being used or having been used by the most number of participants. The participants believed that vocabulary, vocabulary learning strategies, and dictionaries play extremely important roles in language learning. Additionally, regarding prominent issues in vocabulary learning and teaching, the participants generally showed a strong consensus on three major points. First, they perceived that reading is a powerful method to increase vocabulary. Second, they considered guessing new words from context to be an excellent strategy for vocabulary acquisition. Third, they believed that technology can greatly help students to learn vocabulary; thus, it should be integrated into the classroom to enhance students' lexical learning outcomes. Finally, the results show that the participants reported using all the vocabulary teaching techniques surveyed with varying degrees of frequency. Four vocabulary teaching techniques that received the most popularity among the participants were (a) preteaching new words, (b) ensuring that students can pronounce the word and understand its meaning, (c) providing a native language equivalent of the word to students when they have difficulty comprehending the word in English, and (d) asking students to guess the meaning of the word prior to explaining them. |
