Enhancing Register Awareness through a ChatGPT-Mediated Teaching-Learning Cycle in a Vietnamese B1 EFL Co-Teaching Context
Authors
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Ngo Hung Phu
Vietnam National University - HCM University of Social Sciences and Humanities (HCMUSSH)
https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8185-8861 (unauthenticated)
Keywords:
Register awareness, Teaching-Learning Cycle, ChatGPT- mediated intervention, co-teaching model, spoken-like featuresAbstract
Register awareness is a primary concern of writing instruction. It requires learners to adapt their language to suit the communicative purpose and degree of formality. In many Vietnamese EFL contexts, however, writing instruction often focuses on grammatical accuracy and text organisation. There is limited support to enhance learners’ awareness of register. Within the Teaching–Learning Cycle (TLC), register is expected to be scaffolded through three stages. Yet, utilising ChatGPT to reinforce these stages has remained underexplored, especially in co-teaching classrooms. This exploratory quantitative study adopted a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test design. Participants included 60 B1-level learners across four classes in an English center with two experimental (EG, n = 30) and comparison group (CG, n = 30) — selected via convenience sampling. Data was collected through Cambridge B1 Preliminary-based article writing tasks, scored using a Register Awareness Rubric (RAR; κ = .84), and a 15-item four-point Likert-scale questionnaire (Cronbach's α = .87). The hypothesis was confirmed: independent-samples t-test revealed t(58) = 10.08, p < .001, Cohen's d = 2.59; ANCOVA controlling for pre-test scores yielded F(1, 57) = 88.34, p < .001, partial η² = .61, with all ANCOVA assumptions verified (Shapiro-Wilk p > .05; Levene's p = .43; regression slopes homogeneity p = .38). The EG demonstrated significantly greater reductions across all six spoken-like register features. Learner perceptions were strongly positive across all 15 questionnaire items (cluster means: 3.42–3.80 on a four-point scale).
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