The purpose of this study was identifying the extent of preferences andrnfrequency of use of speaking s trategies of grade 10 students of Yekatit 66 andrnW/ro Kelemework Secodary Schools. Moreover, it attempted to find out if therernare s ignificant differences between s tudents' extent of preferences and frequencyrnof use of speaking s trategies and it also identified some of the major factors thatrninhibit learners from using their strategy p reference as frequ ently as possible. Arndescriptive survey method was used. From the total population of 1547 s tudents,rn195 (98 male and 97 female) students, who were selected by using simplernrandom sampling method, were involved in the study. In order to gather thernnecessary data, questionnaires, interview and classroom observations werernemployed. The questionnaires were used to gather data about the extent ofrnpreferences and the frequency of use of peaking s trategies by students and tornidentify the major factors that affect the use of sp eak ing strategies . The latterrntwo tools were employed in order to triangulate the data gathered through thernquestionnaires. Accordingly, the following results have been found . The tudentsrnshowed high pref erences towards all speaking s trategies . HOYJe ver, students 'rnpreferences towards indirect strategies were greater than the -direct one. Inrnaddition to this, none of the strategies were employed highly; rather studentsrnshowed medium use towards all sp eaking s trategies (affective, meta cognitive,rncOlnpensation, memory, cognitive and social s trategies). A nother important resultrnwas that there was a difference between students ' extent of pref erence andrnji-equency of use of strategies. This means, stude nts ' attempt to use speakingrnstrategies in relation to their extent of preferences. were very weak. The majorrnfactors that inhibited students strategy use were iack of awareness of s trategies.rnabsence of conducive school environment, lack of EFL teachers help in teachingrnthe strategies,. the influence of culture, fear of making mistake, fear of studentsrnlaughter and lack of experience of using strategies . Thus, it is recommended, thatrnall concerned bodies (teachers, school principals, students, etc.) should play arnsignificant role in every way possible in order to make students use speakingrnstrategies as frequently as possible.