<![CDATA[Speaking remains one of the most challenging skills in heterogeneous EFL classrooms, where students differ in readiness, confidence, and opportunities to participate. Addressing this issue, the present study investigates how differentiated learning is implemented in EFL speaking instruction and what challenges teachers encounter in its classroom enactment, with a particular focus on lived instructional practice rather than learning outcomes alone. This study employed a qualitative case study in a public senior high school in Makassar, Indonesia, involving two English teachers as participants. Data were collected through 16 classroom observations and in-depth semi-structured interviews and were analyzed using Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña’s interactive qualitative data analysis model. The findings show that differentiated learning was enacted most visibly through process differentiation and psychologically supportive learning environments, while content differentiation was mainly realized through simplification and scaffolding, and product differentiation remained limited and occasional. The study also found that teachers faced persistent challenges related to students’ perceptions of fairness, time fragmentation, workload, and technical or resource constraints. These findings suggest that differentiated learning for EFL speaking is pedagogically promising, but its sustainable implementation requires teacher readiness, institutional support, and school-level conditions that enable flexible and equitable instruction.]]>
