Speaker
Description
Transitioning from EFL to ESL demands more than communicative competence — it requires English to function as a genuine cognitive operating system. Yet in an era of generative artificial intelligence, polished student writing increasingly masks gaps in authentic thinking, making it difficult for educators to assess whether learners truly own the ideas they present.
This presentation introduces a three-layer project-based learning framework designed to reveal this gap. The first layer provides structured input through sixteen scaffolded sessions integrating business content and language at B1+/B2 level. The second layer engages students as active thinkers by using artificial intelligence as a thinking partner, with chatlog documentation serving as a transparency tool that captures how students filter and adapt AI-generated language. The third layer — a one-hundred-percent oral defense — functions as the ultimate filter, requiring students to defend their ideas in real time without prepared scripts.
Drawing on evidence from twenty-one student submissions and a final grade sheet from a university ESP course in Vietnam, this presentation examines the "5.5 Thinking Plateau" — a pattern in which Risk Awareness scores remained at 5.5 across nearly all students despite strong oral delivery. Three contrasting cases illustrate how the framework distinguishes language performance from genuine cognitive ownership. Practical implications for rubric design and assessment are discussed, alongside limitations and directions for future inquiry.
Biography
Nguyen Ngoc Anh Mai is an English lecturer at FPT University, Ho Chi Minh City, where she teaches Business English, English for Specific Purposes, and Academic English to undergraduate students in the English Language and International Business programs. She holds a Master of Education in TESOL from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia, and brings over ten years of experience in English language teaching, curriculum development, and teacher training. Her professional background spans higher education, language center management, and international education, with a consistent focus on learner-centered instruction and communicative language teaching. Her current pedagogical interests include project-based learning, AI-integrated assessment, and the development of English Mindset in EFL-to-ESL transitional contexts. She is committed to designing learning environments where English serves not only as a communicative tool but as a genuine medium for critical thinking and cognitive ownership.
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