The study aimed at examining the effects of using information gap activities on EFL students’ motivation and speaking performance. A quasi-experimental design that employed a pretest-post-test two groups design was used. A total of 82 grade 11th students were randomly selected from Merawi Colonel Tadesse Muluneh Preparatory School. Tests, questionnaires, and teacher log were used to collect data. While the quantitative data were analyzed using independent samples t-test and paired samples t-test through SPSS, the qualitative data were also analyzed qualitatively using thematic analysis. The findings of the study revealed that EFL learners who had learned speaking skills through information gap activity instructional method have surpassed in their speaking performance over the students who learned through the conventional method of teaching speaking skills. Hence, using information gap filling method of speaking instruction enhanced students’ speaking performance including fluency and coherence, lexical resource, grammatical range and accuracy, and pronunciation. The results revealed that after using the information gap filling learning, the students have clear pronunciation, speak fluently with less hesitation, speak coherently with appropriate cohesive features, develop topics while speaking, and use vocabulary with flexibility and precision. The findings also showed that using information gap filling activity instructional method increased students’ motivation towards speaking. Hence, after using the information gap filling instructional method, the students’ interest in speaking was increased, they enjoyed to speak in English, speaking helps them to make their ideas clearer, speaking was satisfying for them, and they were self-confident to make conversations. It is, therefore, recommended that English language teachers should use information gap activities in their classrooms to develop students’ speaking performance and increase students’ motivation towards speaking. Likewise, teaching material developers need to consider the information gap activity principles in developing speaking teaching materials so that students improve their speaking performance and increase their motivation. Students should also use information gap activities to be effective in their English language speech. Finally, future large scale studies should be conducted on the effectiveness of information gap activities on English language learning