When children start primary school, they encounter learning a foreign language, which they learn in instructional settings, as opposed to their mother tongue, which they acquire in communicative situations. In schools, teachers use textbooks and workbooks to teach the language, using different methods, techniques and activities, which they find appropriate for the learners, their age and cognitive developmental stage. The first part of this thesis is theoretical and aims to present and describe various activities and techniques that can be used in teaching vocabulary to young learners, i.e. from the first to the fourth grade of primary school. The activities and techniques mentioned in the thesis make learning more efficient, accessible and easier for students, enhance adoption of vocabulary, prevent monotony and increase motivation and interest of the students. The second part of the thesis investigates vocabulary activities in four textbook sets intended for learning English as a foreign language in the second and the third grade of primary school, published by two different publishing houses, a domestic and a foreign one. The frequency of different categories of vocabulary activities is presented and discussed, followed by an analysis of the sequence of acquiring language skills through vocabulary activities. The textbook sets published by domestic and foreign publishers are also compared. Finally, the same activities are analysed in relation to the outcomes prescribed by the National Curriculum. The analysis shows a wide variety of activity types which enable the learners to acquire the target vocabulary. While acquiring the vocabulary, the sequence of acquiring skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) is appropriate and the outcomes from the Curriculum for the subject the English language can be achieved through the activities in the mentioned textbooks and workbooks.