Abstarct: This qualitative classroom intervention study explored the impact of culturally responsive storytelling on the speaking confidence of Iraqi EFL learners. Despite the recognized importance of oral communication, Iraqi EFL students persistently experience high levels of speaking anxiety and low self-confidence, yet little research has examined culturally specific pedagogical interventions to address this problem. The study aimed to investigate how culturally responsive storytelling influences speaking confidence, learners’ perceptions of the intervention, and which specific features contribute to changes in confidence. A six-week storytelling intervention using authentic Iraqi folktales was implemented with 22 secondary school EFL learners. Data were collected through classroom observations, semi-structured interviews (pre- and post-intervention with 12 learners), weekly reflection journals, and researcher field notes. Thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke’s six-step model was employed. Findings revealed substantial improvements in speaking confidence, with composite confidence scores increasing from 28 to 79 (0-100 scale), voluntary speaking rising from 18% to 86%, and average response length growing from 2.8 to 8.6 words. Learners perceived the intervention as comfortable, enjoyable, and linguistically useful. Five features contributed to increased confidence: cultural familiarity (rated 4.8/5), low-stakes environment (4.6/5), peer collaboration (4.5/5), narrative structure (4.1/5), and teacher scaffolding (4.0/5). The study demonstrates that culturally responsive storytelling is an effective, low-resource intervention for building speaking confidence in Iraqi EFL contexts, with implications for curriculum design, teacher training, and classroom practice.