Enhancing EFL Speaking Skills in Preschool Learners. The Potential of Puppetry in Language Education: Empirical action research

Master's Thesis from the year 2023 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, University of Education Freiburg im Breisgau (E-LINGO (Anglistik)), language: English, abstract: This action research was conducted in a bilingual kindergarten group with children between the ages of five and six. It showed evidence that learners using puppets in drama and guessing game tasks supported their EFL language speaking skills development. The findings revealed that in such tasks, learner-led puppets were engaging, promoted the children's well-being and stimulated them to interact in English with one another. The results also indicated that this medium could cater to heterogeneous classrooms. All children participated in discourse regardless of their language level, special needs and personality. On a linguistic level, learner-led puppet tasks enabled the learners to use familiar, new lexis and language chunks, along with spontaneous and creative speech. This research also showed that learner-led puppet tasks supported the children to retain language following the lessons and contributed to an improvement of their overall language skills. This Master Thesis includes detailed descriptions of puppet tasks, their materials, methodologies and didactics. These resources are useful for practitioners looking for inspiration and guidance in the field of puppetry for young language learners.