Th is study was carried out to exp lore the practice of communicative approach inrnteaching vocabulary among grade nine English language teachers of 8 schools in AddisrnAbaba. In line with the major purpose, it also aimed at investi gating teachers' perceptionrnof CLT principl es, classroom vocabulary instruction and activities. Major obstac les thatrnaffected the implementation ofCLT during vocabulary instruction were also assessed.rnTo do this, 8 schools and 5 teachers from each school were selected using randomrnsampling to fill in the questionnaire. Then, 8 teachers were purposely chosen for thernfocus group di scuss ion and all teachers were selected for classroom observationrnDescriptive statistics using frequ encies and percentages were employed in analyzing thernquantitative data and qualitative description was used to analyze the focus grouprndi scussion.rnThe findin gs of the study revealed that the majority of teachers perceived that much ofrnr the CL T principles are appropriate to teach vocabulary communicatively. However, inrnrelation to classroom instruction of vocabulary, they believed that they spent much ofrntheir time in presenting the meaning and form of words. A great deal remained to berndone to change the prin ciples into communicative activities to relate the presentation ofrnform and meanings of separate words to class room activities and authentic contexts. Asrnthe obstacles to implement vocabulary lessons in CLT, it was found out that teachersrnwere highly depending on the lecture method. They also depend on dictionary definitionrnof many words at time for the sake of finali zing the portion.rnFinally, based on the findings, the researcher recommended that creating mean ingfulrnlearning opportunities through English club and Engli sh day in the school and, 'use, ofrnauthentic writing and listening acti vities out of the school is very important for learners.rnIn addi tion, department heads and school admini strators should follow up teachers notrnon ly for the coverage of portions but also how better each skill are taught