The study is carried out in primary schools, which havernnot been given due attention. More specifically, it attemptsrnto explore the teaching of vocabulary in grades one and two.rnThe subjects of the study, teachers as well as students,rnare from old and well established government primary schoolsrnin Addis Ababa. The data for the study are collected from arnquestionnaire, classroom observations, interviews and arnvocabulary test.rnFirst, data are collected from the questionnairerndistributed to teachers. Then teachers are interviewed onrntheir use of the different techniques of vocabulary teaching.rnSubsequently, teachers are observed teaching vocabulary.rnStudents are also asked what their reaction to vocabularyrnteaching is, after the observations. Finally, students arerngiven a vocabulary test to find out how effective therntechniques used by teachers in teaching vocabulary are.rnThe data collected from the questionnaire, the classroomrnobservations and the test are seen in relation to one anotherrnto find out which techniques are more frequently used and morerneffective in teaching the meaning of words in grades one andrntwo.rnThe findings show that pictures, picture cards, blackboardrndrawings and real objects are more frequented and effectiverntechniques of vocabulary teaching in grades one and two. Onrnthe bases of these findings, it is recommended that, since theyrnare teaching young children, teachers in grades one and twornshould use real objects (realia) as most of the vocabularyrnitems in the syllabi can be better taught this way.