It has been theoretically and empirically acknowledged that collaborative feedback is beneficial to learning achievement. However, feedback research remains relatively contentious due to learners' differing viewpoints on how feedback is best given. Although a large number of studies have explored learners' perspectives on collaborative feedback, little classroom-based research has promoted noticing through collaborative feedback. To address this, this study aims to infuse noticing-based collaborative correction into secondary classrooms to explore students' perceptions of such feedback practice on their written output. Forty-one students' responses to the list of close-ended questionnaires revealed a strong consensus about this potential approach although there are indications that the participants' dependent learning styles had influenced these findings. An obvious implication of this is that students might benefit from various scaffolding sources, and thus there is a need for teachers to be aware of the influence of reciprocal learning among learners so that the quality of feedback practices may be enhanced.

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In recent years, local scholars have been playing an increasingly significant role in the global knowledge system. However, in the context of Vietnam, interaction and engagement between Vietnamese social sciences researchers (VSSRs) with the global academic world are limited despite efforts from the Vietnamese government and tertiary institutions. This study explores the barriers that prevent Vietnamese scholars engaging with the international academic community. Eighty-two Vietnamese scholars in various fields of social sciences responded to an online self-reporting questionnaire including 13 closed-ended and nine open-ended questions. The results show that various individual factors (e.g., the researchers’ inadequate proficiency in English or limited research capacities), organisational factors (e.g., the lack of a supportive research environment, the lack of funding and resources, and unsupportive policies), and broader factors (e.g., political censors or the tradition of social research) could significantly influence VSSRs’ engagement with global academia. The study underlines the need for in-depth scholar-centred research to understand the process in which local researchers, who are disadvantaged by their contextual factors, participate in the international academic community. More importantly, findings are used to develop a potential framework to study local researchers’ academic engagement with global academia.

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Two approaches to grammar instruction are often discussed in the ESL literature: direct explicit grammar instruction (DEGI) (deduction) and indirect explicit grammar instruction (IEGI) (induction). This study aims to explore the effects of indirect explicit grammar instruction on EFL learners' mastery of English tenses. Ninety-four eleventh-graders were conveniently selected and randomly assigned into either the experimental group (EG) or the control group (CG). A pre-post tests design was used to collect the data. Before and after the treatment, the following tests were administered: rule analysis, grammar, and speaking. A delayed written test was given to both groups to assess students' retention of structure acquired; in addition, a questionnaire was provided to the EG to investigate their perception on the treatment. The results indicated that the EG significantly outperformed the CG in the analysis of grammar rules and the oral proficiency, except for the use of grammar structures in a pre-defined context. Convincingly, there was a positive correlation between the grammar rules and their subsequent use. This validates the cause and effect of grammar rules' acquisition and the use of them in receptive and productive stages. Also, the EG had favorable attitudes towards the instruction. This study may provide practical implications and techniques for improving EFL students' grammar performance in high schools in Vietnam.

This study draws on mediated learning experience (MLE) theory to contextualize the correcting process within the sociocultural dimension of the teacher’s intervention and collaborative learning to facilitate student engagement with discovering, correcting, and rewriting practices. This correcting process was administered to eight mixed-ability groups of Vietnamese secondary students (n = 31) to investigate students’ perceptions of their engagement in the process from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives that have been under-researched so far. The statistical analysis of a closed-ended questionnaire shows that students strongly agreed with the practices and effectiveness of the process, accuracy improvement, approach preferences, and learning motivation. Eight students’ responses to semi-structured interviews elaborated on the benefits and disadvantages of group-correction and the significance of targeting errors, and on each correcting phase. While students’ responses satisfied MLE’s criteria, their perceptions of the limitations of group-correction somewhat qualified the way reciprocity occurred. The findings suggest offering students opportunities to act on language issues in their writing and confirm the usefulness of engagement with correction-feedback practices from which implications for L2 writing and further research are discussed.

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