This research was about the use of puppet in teaching speaking to young learners. The aim of this study was to find out whether the use puppet was effective or not to improve the speaking skills of fifth graders of SD Islam Sultan Agung 4 Semarang in Academic Year 2017/2018. This study was conducted at SD Islam Sultan Agung 4 Semarang which is located on Jl. Raden Patah No 263 Kecamatan Semarang Timur, Semarang. The population of this study was the fifth graders of SD Islam Sultan Agung 4 Semarang, the sample were 5B as the experimental class and 5A as the control class. The type of this study was quasi experimental design. In collecting the data, the researcher used test named pre-test and post-test. The result of this study showed that pre-test mean score of experimental class was 69.1678 and the control class was 66.2500 After giving the treatment for three meetings, the post-test mean score of experimental class was 73.2292 and the control class was 66.1458 The result of the analysis showed that there was a significance difference between the mean score of the experimental and control class. It was supported by the result of t-test that showed the value of sig (2-tailed) was 0.004 (<0.05) it could be concluded that H0 was rejected and H1 was accepted. Therefore, the use of puppet technique was effective to improve the speaking skill of young learners.
Keywords: Puppet, Teaching Speaking, Young Learners