VietTESOL International Convention 2026

As Viet Nam moves towards repositioning English from a foreign language to a functional second language, teachers need classroom practices that help learners use English not only as a subject, but also as a tool for learning, participation, feedback, and self-regulation. This talk reports on a small classroom-based action research project with B1-level secondary learners in Viet Nam, in which students co-constructed success criteria for a task-based project. Drawing on exemplar analysis, group discussion, whole-class negotiation, and peer and self-assessment, the practice aimed to make task expectations more transparent, meaningful, and learner-owned. Preliminary evidence from classroom observations, student work, and assessment responses suggests that co-constructed criteria helped learners approach the task more purposefully, give more specific feedback linked to agreed criteria, and engage more meaningfully in self-assessment. The talk argues that co-constructing success criteria can support ESL-oriented pedagogy by shifting assessment from a teacher-controlled checklist to a shared learning tool. Participants will leave with a practical sequence for co-constructing criteria with learners and ideas for adapting the process to task-based and project-based language classrooms in similar EFL-to-ESL transition contexts.