From SWOT checklists to action learning: an empirically grounded design study of employability reflection in Vietnamese EFL internships

Reflective writing in internships can become administratively useful but pedagogically thin. This paper reports a qualitative document-informed design study that analysed 376 practicum reports from final-year Vietnamese English-major undergraduates to examine how a mandated Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) section represented internship learning and employability readiness. The analysis identified three recurring limitations: (1) SWOT entries were dominated by trait-based self-presentation, (2) learners located weaknesses at the transition between classroom knowledge and situated workplace practice, and (3) opportunities and threats were usually named rather than converted into action. Drawing on action learning, reflective practice, work-integrated learning, and Vietnamese English as a foreign language (EFL) employability literature, the paper translates these findings into SWOT-Guided Action Learning Design (SGAL-Design). The design retains SWOT as recognisable assessment language but embeds it in workplace problem formulation, small action learning sets, weekly Analyze-Evidence-Act-Reframe (AEAR) cycles, mentor questioning, supervisor micro-notes, and a portfolio artefact. The paper contributes an empirically grounded design architecture for turning internship reflection from a retrospective checklist into a disciplined process of problem inquiry, evidence-informed action, and employability recognition. SGAL-Design is not presented as an evaluated intervention, but its evaluation logic is specified for future implementation research.