Supporting speaking skills development through the use of puppets among fourth-grade EFL learners at a private school in the city of Guayaquil in the scholastic year 2025 - 2026.

Abstract

English has become a key language for academic mobility, global communication, and future employment, yet in many EFL contexts learners still complete years of schooling without being able to speak with confidence. This gap matters most in the early grades, when children are developmentally ready to learn through interaction, play, and meaningful use of language that should make oral communication a natural outcome of classroom learning. However, when instruction prioritizes written accuracy and memorization over authentic talk, students may know vocabulary and grammar but still struggle to use English as a tool for real communication. This work examines the problem of underdeveloped speaking proficiency in Ecuadorian EFL education, where classroom practice often concentrates on reading, writing, and listening while speaking receives limited time and methodological attention. It focuses specifically on fourth-grade learners in a private school in southern Guayaquil during the 2025–2026 school year, where students show reluctance to participate orally, difficulty recalling recently taught vocabulary, and low performance in English despite ongoing grammar and vocabulary instruction. In response, the study diagnoses speaking-related needs and designs puppet performance activities as an innovative, developmentally appropriate approach to strengthen speaking proficiency while also supporting motivation, confidence, collaboration, and self-expression to address persistent speaking deficits in Ecuadorian EFL classrooms.