VietTESOL International Convention 2026

As English education in Vietnam is increasingly expected to support academic communication and responsible source use, university students need explicit instruction in transforming source texts accurately, independently, and ethically. However, many EFL students still approach paraphrasing as synonym replacement, which may result in patchwriting, meaning distortion, and weak integration of academic sources. This mixed methods classroom based study examined how RUASREI based paraphrasing strategy instruction supported Vietnamese EFL students’ development of academic paraphrasing ability. RUASREI refers to Read, Understand, Analyze, Set aside, Reproduce, Evaluate, and Incorporate, a seven step framework designed to guide students from source comprehension to responsible incorporation. The study involved 81 undergraduate students in a university EFL writing context and was implemented through a six week instructional intervention. Quantitative data were collected from pre and post paraphrasing assessments scored with an analytic rubric, while qualitative data were obtained from semi structured interviews with nine students who were purposively selected based on variation in their pre to post test gains. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, paired samples analysis, and effect size estimates, while the interview data were examined through thematic analysis. Findings indicated measurable gains in overall paraphrase quality, particularly in meaning preservation, syntactic reformulation, and awareness of academic integrity. Interview findings further showed that students gradually shifted from word level replacement to a more reflective process of understanding, restructuring, evaluating, and citing source ideas. The study contributes pedagogical and assessment implications for integrating paraphrasing strategy instruction into academic writing curricula in EFL higher education.