Helping the grade 12 students improve their sense of responsibility to themselves...

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Helping the grade 12 students improve their sense of responsibility to themselves, their families and society through postreading activities WORD VERSION | 2021 EDITION ORDER NOW / CHUYỂN GIAO QUA EMAIL TAILIEUCHUANTHAMKHAO@GMAIL.COM

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PART I: INTRODUCTION So far, we have been caring much about what families, schools and society should do for children. However, it is also important for students to be aware of what they have to do for themselves, their families and society. In other words, students must be responsible to themselves, their families and society. But in fact, many students not only neglect studying but also often avoid and complain about their tasks, miss deadlines, break the disciplines, and even blame others for the mistakes and failure. They are more and more materialistic, selfish, indifferent and emotionless. Therefore, it is undeniable that they are becoming more and more irresponsible.

As a high school teacher, I have learned that one of the six pillars of character education is to be responsible. However, educating sense of responsibility at my school has not been really effective. One of the most basically causes may be that responsibilities are usually taught theoretically with little practical application. In addition, it is not focused on in every lesson they learn in classes. Whereas, it is obviously possible to educate students' sense of responsibility through different subjects such as: Civic Education, Literature, Biology, English,‌ A question is raised is how I can teach my students sense of responsibility while our teaching methods mainly focus on language skills. In addition, my students are at the grade 12 when the GCSSE exam is coming soon and the teachers try to teach the knowledge that help students to get good marks in their tests and exams. It means I have to improve my students' sense of responsibility through teaching knowledge and language skills.

As a matter of fact the post-reading stage of a reading lesson is often confused with the closing of a lesson. So, teachers usually use classic post-reading activities to make sure that the students have already comprehended the text. However, I learn that at the post-reading stage students are not studying about the language of the text and they are not comprehending the text, either. At this stage students are supposed to apply what they possess. Post-reading activities are expected to encourage students to reflect upon what they have read, which takes the students to their real life situation. So, post-reading stage is potential to apply the activities which help improve students' sense of responsibility to themselves, their families and society. By this way I can combine teaching language skills with improving my students' sense of responsibility without time-consuming.

For the reasons above, from the beginning of the school year 2018-2019, I have carried a study which has changed the ways we used to teach post-reading with the topic "Helping the grade 12 students improve their sense of responsibility to themselves, their families and society through post-reading activities". Hoping that with these experiences teaching post-reading at my school will become more flexible and our students will be more responsible to themselves, their families and society.

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PART II: CONTENT I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1. Sense of responsibility 1.1. Definition of responsibility and sense of responsibility Responsibility is defined as the state or fact of having a duty to deal with something or of having control over someone; thestate or fact of being accountable or to blame for something; the opportunity or ability to act independently and take decisions without authorization; a thing which one is required to do as part of a job, role, or legal obligation. Responsibility is the burden someone is obligated to fulfill in order to meet a particular need. Someone’s level of meeting his responsibilities shows how trustworthy he is, particularly if he consistently meets his responsibilities.

A sense of responsibility is an awareness of one’s obligations; it’s like doing what we suppose to do. It can be defined as a general conscious awareness; "a sense of security"; "a sense of happiness"; "a sense of danger"; "a sense of self".

1.2. List of responsibilities every student should fulfill Students are expected to fulfill some key responsibilities before they leave school and start a new life. They are: - Responsibilities to themselves - Responsibilities to their families - Responsibilities to their school - Responsibilities to their community and society 2. Post- reading activities 2.1. Definition of post-reading activities Post-reading activities are simply activities done after while-reading activities are completed. At this stage the students are in a temporary change of state or condition, that is, they now know something they did not know before. The task of the post-reading stage is to integrate or synthesize the read material into one's knowledge base of the topic. Students need to make the material their own.

This can be achieved through a variety of means employing writing, class discussion, visual representations, and physical demonstration.

When the while-reading stage is completed, the students are expected to have obtained new information from the text. This should bring about a change of some kind such as they would know more, or think or feel differently from before.

According to Nuttall (1996: 164) when intensive work in a during-/while-reading stage is completed, general comprehension must be intended to. At this stage, the students should be able to evaluate the text as a whole to respond to it from a more 2

or less personal point of view. They may be asked to agree or disagree with the author or the characters in the text; relate the content to their own experience; connect the content with other work in the same field; discuss characters, incidents, ideas, feelings; or predict what can happen afterwards.

2.2. Benefits of using post-reading activities to improve the students' sense of responsibility - Teachers can educate students' character through teaching language skills - Students recycle what they have obtained from the text - Students go beyond the text and enter the real world, equipped with the newlyobtained information.

- Updating the problems that are closed to the students' real life and working together to find out the solutions as their responsibility.

- Students can well prepare for an independent life in the future.

- Students learn to be responsible for their actions, choices and decisions to themselves, their families and society.

- From post-reading activities, the students are developping themselves to achieve automaticity, meaningful learning, autonomy, willingness to communicate, interlanguage, and communicative competence.

2.3. Some principles for choosing post-reading activities to raise students' responsibility - The activities must connect the topics of the reading texts with the responsibilities that students should fulfill.

- The activities should keep all of the students involved and interested.

- The activities should help the students develop their communicative skills.

- The activities should make students think of what they have to do in the real life.

- Teaching the sense of responsibility may make students boring so the activities should be challenging and interesting enough to attract their attention and stimulate them to take part in.

- To be suitable with the time limit of post-reading stage, the length of each activity is about 10 minutes II. SITUATION ANALYSIS 1. Situation of students' sense of responsibilities at my school.

My school is located in the mountainous area of the district. Therefore, there are many difficulties in the teaching and learning. Most of the students at my school live far from the district center and come from low-income families. In spite of the difficulties, the students are given a chance to go to school. In recent years, 3

due to the objective reasons, the number of students applying for my school has been decreasing, which makes the enrolment seem to be too easy for the students.

It may be a cause of the fact that the students hardly make any attempts to learn, they are becoming lazier and lazier.

As a matter of fact, the students are very irresponsible to themselves. Their sense of learning is too low, which causes their low learning results. In the class, they often talk or do private things, do not pay attention to the teachers' lectures.

Many of them do not do homework and prepare for new lessons before class. The situation of unpunctuality, skipping class and cheating in tests or exams is quite frequent. Especially for the grade 12 students, although they are going to take the GCSE exam, they seem not to worry about their studying. They probably think that their teachers will not let them get bad marks and they will be able to cheat in the exams. They seem to be waiting for their luck, so they hardly make effort to study.

In spite of their low living conditions, the parents try to buy electric bikes for their children to go to school instead of going by bike. Furthermore, the students also own expensive and modern mobile devices, which makes them neglect studying. Some of them use smart phones sneakily in the classes. Many parents complain that their children are attracted to the smart phones all day; they neither do housework nor study at home. They spend their time on mobile devices instead of others activities such as reading or playing sports which help improve their health, knowledge and life skills. They care more about the status and problems in social network than about what they are facing, their parents or other family members. As a result, they are impacted negatively from some information in social network. It can be said that they lack responsibility to both themselves and their families.

In addition, they also lack the conformity with the law. In spite of the obligation, most of them go to school by electric bike without wearing helmets. It is not until they arrive at the school gate that they wear helmets in order to avoid the teachers' punishment. Some of the students even ride motorbike to school although their age is not old enough. They throw waste in public, even damage the common property. Besides, many of them refuse to take part in social activities.

They seem to indifferent and emotionless. In short, the young tend to be more and more irresponsible to not only themselves, their families but society as well. It is one of the causes that make the students live without objectives or even commit a crime. There seems to be no way to solve this problem except improving the students' sense of responsibility.

2. Situation of teaching the students sense of responsibility at my school.

It is said that family is the foundation of character education. It means that children's character is mainly formed by family education. Besides, school also plays an important role in educating students' character. Normally, it is considered that character education is the responsibility of form teachers and the teachers who 4

teach Civic Education. Therefore, at my school, it is likely only form teachers and Civic Education teachers take responsibility for teaching students responsibility.

The Young Onion sometimes organizes outdoor activities which help raise the students' responsibility. Other teachers mainly teach knowledge in textbook and some necessary skills that their subjects require the sense of responsibility is hardly focused.

3. Situation of learning English and teaching post-reading in English lessons at my school.

As mentioned above, the students’ living conditions have a big effect on the way students study. Many of them learn English with the only aim to pass the national GCSE exam, so they mostly focus on studying pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. They even feel it hard to remember all the required knowledge for different exams.

This way of thinking among students leads the teachers of English at my school to nearly the same way of teaching the language. We always try to fulfill the knowledge in textbooks to our students. Especially, the teachers who teach the 12th grade students often try to provide as many practice exercises related to the GCSE exam as possible. With the help of modern technology, many lectures designed by PowerPoint have been given to students. The teachers also use interesting activities such as games, quiz, role-play‌to stimulate students. They have been trying to apply new teaching methods to help students improve their language skills consist of reading, listening, speaking and writing. The quality of the lectures has been considerably raised and it plays an important role in the results of the students in the exams.

In reading lessons, the teachers at my school often adapt the activities given in textbooks to make it easy for our students, make the lessons more interesting and attract their attention to the lessons as well. However, because of our students' poor ability and long or difficult reading texts, the teachers and students usually spend almost the time on while-reading activities. Sometime, we hardly have time for post-reading stage or else we use the post-reading activities similar to those in while-reading stage to make sure that the students understand the reading text more. The post-reading activities that are used popularly are related to summarizing the reading text such as filling the missing words in the summary of the text, using the cues to summarize the text‌ or translating the text into Vietnamese. This helps the students comprehend the reading texts totally.

However, these methods of teaching and learning can hardly help improve students' character in general and sense of responsibility in particular.

4. The English Language syllabus The textbook Tieng Anh 12 as well as Tieng Anh 10 and Tieng Anh 11 is traditional textbook structured with a priority towards theme-based or topic-based 5

learning models. The textbook has desirable aim of providing students with a foundational knowledge of numerous fields, a favorable attitude towards the English Language, and the four skills generally recognized as building proficiency in language study: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. In order to achieve these objectives, the content of the book is designed to utilize themes with which all students will be familiar. Included are topics related to the student’s social lives, to sports, to work, and to leisure activities universal experiences. For each topic, related vocabulary and word studies are presented communicatively. The textbook contains sixteen units, with each unit presenting five lessons with four different skills and a language focus. Reading is the first unit in each lesson, guiding students to key words and phrases of the related topicwhich then become “building blocks” that enable them to learn additional skills.

The book Tieng Anh 12 contains many topics which are close to the students .

They are about life, studying, job, family, nature and society such as home life, future jobs, life in the future…but there is no separate part for teaching students the sense of responsibility to themselves, their family and society. Therefore, although teaching sense of responsibility is necessary, it is not compulsory.

III. SURVEY 1. Survey and the results At the beginning of the school year 2018-2019, I have carried out the survey containing 5 multiple choice questions for 118 students from three classes 12A1, 12B2, 12B4 of my school. The survey was done twice. One was at the first semester of the twelfth form (before teaching post reading with activities improving students' sense of responsibilities) and the other was at the end of the second semester (after using these activities). The table below shows the result of the survey for first time.

Questions

Answers

1. Do you think how important sense of A. Normal responsibility is?

B. Important C.Very important 2. How often do you think about your A. Rarely responsibilities in your daily activities?

B. Sometimes C. Usually 3. Do you find it necessary to be taught A. Unnecessary sense of responsibility in the class?

B. Necessary

Before using the activities 42% 35% 23% 27% 55% 18% 9% 51% 6

4. Do you learn much about sense of responsibility through your English lessons?

5. How much is your sense of responsibility to yourselves, your family, school and society?

C. Very necessary

40%

A. Little

30%

B. Normal

62%

C. Much

8%

A. Little

41%

B. Normal

45%

C. Much

4%

2. Findings from the survey.

The survey shows that before using the adapted activities, most of students do not care much about responsibility. Even though they know responsibility is important, they often act without thinking about it. Most of them consider that they should be taught responsibility in the class. However, every English lesson they learn often mainly focuses on knowledge and language skills. As a result, they are little aware of their responsibility to themselves, their family, school and community.

IV. FINDING SOLUTIONS From the analysis above, it can be said that our students' irresponsibility is very worrying. However, teaching in general and teaching English in particular at my school is mainly focused on knowledge and language skills. It is high time for us to educate our students' character as well as sense of responsibility through English lessons.

Post-reading stage is the best choice for the solution because it is a good chance for the students to connect English lessons with their real life. Furthermore, based on the topics of the reading texts we can create many different activities to teach different responsibilities. In addition, we also can apply many different activities for each reading lesson depending on what responsibility we want to teach our students. In short, post-reading stage is potential to apply the activities which help improve our students' sense of responsibility.

The topics of the reading texts in Tieng Anh 12 textbook are very familiar to the students' life, so I have used post-reading stage to carry out the following activities.

These are some suggested activities which I have applied to improve my students' sense of responsibility to themselves, their families and society quite effectively.

1. Activities to improve students' sense of responsibility to themselves 1.1. Sample application 1 - Unit 4: School education system

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• Aim: Help students realise the importance of self-study and cultivate their selfstudy ability.

•

Suggested activity: Making a plan: Make a self-study plan to prepare for your GCSE effectively.

•

Time limit: 10 minutes.

•

Preparation:

-

Teacher: Prepare a sample self-study plan.

-

Students: Prepare posters and pens for group work; find out self-study methods.

•

Procedure:

- Divide the class into groups of 6-8 students.

- Ask them to discuss how to make a plan.

- Give students some suggestions: To make the plan, you should determine: WHY

HOW

WHAT

SELF-STUDY PLAN

WHO

WHEN

WHERE

Why to study? (Goals) What to study? (What subjects, lessons…)

When to study? (Time available, schedule…)

Where to study? (Studying environment, courses…)

Who may help or study together?

How to study (Studying methods)

- Show students the sample plan as a model.

Sample plan:

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SELF-STUDY PLAN Goals: - Pass the GCSE exam with 30 points - Pass the entrance exam with 25 points (Math: 8, Literature: 8, English 9) Core subjects: Math, Literature, English Optional subjects: History, Geography, Civic Education Time: in the afternoon, at night, at weekend Studying environment: at home, online People to ask for help: teachers, classmates Studying methods: - Pay attention to the lectures.

- Determine the weaknesses.

- Highlight the important pieces of information.

- Set a schedule to study at home.

- Share learn experience with friends, classmates.

- Ask the teachers about what we have not understood yet.

- Study the references.

- Download necessary documents and sample tests.

- Attend some online courses.

- Learn from different media.

- Practice doing tests.

- Keep away modern devices when want to concentrate on studying.

- Each group makes a brief self-study plan.

- After 5 minutes, call some representatives to present their plans.

- Ask other groups to give comments.

- Teacher gives feedback - Ask the students to make their own self-study plan at home as their home work.

The following pictures illustrate the students' activities and their production:

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1.2. Sample application 2 - Unit 5: Higher education • Aim: Raise students' awareness of equipping themselves with essential life skills.

• Suggested activity: An interview: Interview your classmates about their preparation for the life after school.

• Time limit: 10 minutes • Preparation: - Teacher: Prepare 5 questions for interviewing, an interview record sheet, handouts, and a poster of the example.

- Students: Think about the goal they set for the life after school, what may be challenges and some necessary life skills they should equip.

Questions for interviewing: Question 1: Are you going to continue studying with higher education or finding a job after leaving school?

Question 2: What university/ job would you like to apply for?

Question 3: What are you preparing for your life after school?

Question 4: What do you think may be challenges you will face in your new life after school?

Question 5: How can you overcome these challenges?

The interview record sheet You Goal University/Job Preparation Possible challenges How to overcome

Your friend

•

Procedure:

- Deliver the handouts to the students.

- Ask them to fill in their information about themselves first.

- Ask each student to find a partner, use the questions to interview and fills in the interview record sheet.

- Teacher shows the example: You

Your friend

Goals

higher education

a job

University/Job

Banking Academy

a worker

Preparation

- study hard to pass the GCSE and the entrance exam.

- study to pass the GCSE

- improve knowledge

- study vocational education - improve knowledge

- equip some necessary life - equip some necessary life skills such as: decision skills: decision making, making, communicating,‌ communicating,‌ Possible challenges

How to overcome

- money

- applying for a suitable job

- accommodation

- accommodation

- independence

- independence

- new relationships

- new relationships

- get student loans

-improve time and financial managing skills.

- get an on-campus job

-be independent and sociable

-be independent and sociable

- get on well with people

- get on well with people

- willing to learn.

- take part in social activities

- take part in social activities

- After 5 minutes, call some students to report their interview's results.

- Ask other groups to give comments.

- Teacher gives feedback.

The following pictures illustrate the students' activities and their production:

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1.3. Sample application 3 - Unit 6: Future jobs • Aim: Raise students' awareness of equipping themselves with job skills.

• Suggested activity: Discussion: Discuss the necessary job skills and how to acquire the skills.

• Time limit: 10 minutes • Preparation: - Teacher: Prepare a poster of suggested answers - Students: Prepare posters and pens for group work; find out necessary job skills and how they can acquire the skills.

• Procedure: -

Divide the class into groups of six

-

Ask them to discuss the job skills they need equip.

-

After 5 minutes, call the representatives of the groups to report their groups' production.

-

Ask other groups to give comments.

-

Teacher gives feedback and shows the suggested answers.

•

Suggested answers:

Some necessary job skills: - Hard skills: which are teachable abilities or skill sets that are easily measurable.

They are the technical abilities that fit the job. Normally, we can acquire hard skills in the classroom, in an online course, through books and other materials, or on the job.( Depend on types of job) - Soft skills: which are abilities not unique to any job. The soft skills students should equip are: communication; teamwork; problem solving; initiative and enterprise; planning and organising; self-management; learning; technology…

How to acquire the skills: willing to learn study hard, take part in social activities, be active and creative, and study the required skills of your future jobs…

The following pictures illustrate the students' activities and their production:

1.4. Sample application 4 - Unit 11: Books •

Aim: Encourage students' reading habit.

•

Suggested activity: Discussion: Discuss the benefits of reading and how to cultivate your reading habit.

•

Time limit: 10 minutes

•

Preparation:

-

Teacher: Prepare a poster of suggested answers

-

Students: Prepare posters and pen for group work; find out benefits of reading books and how to cultivate a reading habit.

•

Procedure:

-

Divide the class into groups of six-eight

-

Ask them to discuss the benefits of reading and how to cultivate a reading habit

-

After 5 minutes, call the representatives of the groups to report their groups' production.

-

Ask other groups to give comments

-

Teacher gives feedback and shows the suggested answers.

• Suggested answers: Benefits of reading books: -

Cognitive mental stimulation and brain exercising

-

Vocabulary and knowledge expansion

-

Lower levels of stress and tension relief

-

Stronger analytical thinking skills

-

Memory improvement

-

Better writing skills

-

Enhances imagination and empathy

-

Broaden mind

-

Improved focus and concentration

-

Cheap entertainment

How to cultivate a reading habit -

Set reading times and day.

-

Determine reading goals

-

Always carry a book.

-

Make a list of book for each month.

-

Find a quiet place.

-

Reduce television/Internet.

-

Get a reading partner or book club.

-

Go to used book shops.

The following pictures illustrate the students' activities and their production:

1.5. Sample application 5 - Unit 12: Water sports •

Aim: Encourage students to learn to swim as an essential life skill.

•

Suggested activity: Role play: Pretend a swimming trainer and persuade people to learn to swim.

•

Time limit: 10 minutes

•

Preparation: - Students: Prepare posters and pens for group work; find out the benefits of swimming.

- Teacher: Prepare some data of drowning deaths from the global report.

• Procedure: - Show the students the data so that they can realise the disadvantages of being unable to swim.

- Ask some students what they learn from the data. (Suggested answers: Drowning deaths are happening continuously, most of the drown people are unable to swim or unaware of the danger, most of drownings occur in the low and middle income countries where people hardly have chance to learn how to swim methodically …)

- Divide the class into groups of six-eight.

- Ask them to discuss how to persuade people to learn to swim.

- Give students some suggestions (The persuasion should conclude the benefits of swimming and some instructions for swimming) - After 5 minutes, call the representatives of the groups to perform.

- Ask other groups to give comments - Teacher gives feedback and shows the suggested answers.

• Suggested answers: Benefits of swimming: -

A necessary life skill

-

Building endurance, muscle strength and cardiovascular fitness

-

Helping maintain a healthy weight, healthy heart and lungs

-

Tonning muscles and building strength

-

Being a relaxing and peaceful form of exercise

-

Alleviating stress

-

Improving coordination, balance and posture

-

Improving flexibility

-

Providing good low-impact therapy for some injuries and conditions

-

Save people who are going to drown

Some general tips for swimming: - Staying calm in the water by building water confidence in the bathroom before progressing to the pool.

- Practise breathing techniques - Get the right swim gear - Put swim practice time in - Choose a safe environment.

- Warm up and stretch your muscles and joints before entering the water.

- Have plenty of fluids on hand and drink regularly.

- Don’t overdo it if you’re just starting out.

The following pictures illustrate the students' activities and their production:

2. Activities to improve students' sense of responsibility to their families.

2.1. Sample application 1-Unit 1: Home life • Aim: Raise students' awareness of a child's responsibility to the family.

• Suggested activity: Lesson for living: What lesson can you learn from the writer's family? How do you apply the lesson into your real life?

• Time limit: 10 minutes • Preparation: - Teacher: Prepare a poster of suggested answers.

- Students: Prepare posters and pens for group work; think about a child's responsibilities to the family.

• Procedure:

- Divide the class into groups of six-eight to discuss the lesson they get from the text, and how to apply the lesson into their life.

- After 5 minutes, call the representatives of the groups to report their groups' answers.

- Ask other groups to give comments - Teacher gives feedback and shows the suggested answers • Suggested answers: Lesson from the text: Each member in the family has to join hands to make a happy family.

What a child should do for a happy family: - Understand parents' hardship.

- Take care of yourselves.

- Share the household chores - Give-and-take and help the other family members - Honor, respect and obey parents and grandparents.

- Listen to the counsel of parents and grandparents.

- Care for parents and grandparents especially when they are sick and in their old age - Understand and forgive father and mother if there have been failure and breaches The following pictures illustrate the students' activities and their production:

2.2. Sample application 2- Unit 2: Cultural diversity (Version 1) •

Aim: Build up students' awareness of making a happy marriage.

•

Suggested activity: A survey: Express your idea about what to do for a happy marriage.

•

Time limit: 10 minutes

•

Preparation:

- Students: Think about the things men and women should do for a happy marriage

- Teacher: Prepare handouts of the things about men and women should do: TO HAVE A HAPPY MARRIAGE What to do

Your idea Yes

-

No

share housework with his wife

- do the heaviest work for his family Men should

-

love, respect and take care of parents -in-law

- open mind to listen to his wife - take care of the children - always willing to share with wife all problems in life - be faithful -

take the responsibility for earning money to support his family

- share with husband all successes and attainments - stands by husband in all the crises Women should

- take care of the children and their needs, including education.

- be beautiful and attractive - be sacrifice - always trust her husband - raise and educate children - love, respect and take care of her parents -in-law - do all the housework - be faithful

•

Procedure:

- Deliver the handouts for students to tick their idea - Students work in pairs to compare the idea with their partners 18

- Students discuss with their partner the different ideas to make an agreement about what men and women should do.

- After 5 minutes, call some students to express their ideas about what to do for a happy marriage.

- Ask other students to give comments - Teacher gives feedback and show the suggested answer. • Suggested answers: TO HAVE A HAPPY MARRIAGE - share housework with his wife - do the heaviest work for family Men should

- calm and strong in any situations to protect family - love, respect and take care of parents-in-law - open mind to listen to his wife - understand and sympathy with wife - take care of the children - always willing to share with his wife all problems in life - be faithful - love, respect and take care of her parents -in-law

Women should

- share with husband all successes and attainments - stands by husband in all the crises - take care of the children and their needs, including education.

- always trust her husband - be healthy and attractive - take the responsibility for raising children - be faithful

The following pictures illustrate the students' activities and their production:

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2.3. Sample application 3 - Unit 3: Ways of socializing • Aim: Help students be aware of influences of mobile devices on family communication • Suggested activity: Discussion: Discuss the influences of mobile devices on family communication and suggest some solutions.

• Time limit: 10 minutes • Preparation: - Students: Prepare posters and pens for group work; think about the influences of mobile devices on family communication.

- Teacher: Prepare some pictures about using mobile devices at home, a poster of suggested answers:

• Procedure: -

Show the pictures, ask students to comment the pictures and lead in.

- Divide the class into groups of 6-8 students to work out the consequences and solutions to the problem.

- After 5 minutes, call the representatives of the groups to report their group's production.

- Ask other groups to give comments - Teacher gives feedback and shows the suggested answers Suggested answers:

•

Picture comments: The common thing between the two pictures is that although every family member is sitting next to one another, each member is paying attention to their own smart phones. There is no connection, no communication among them.

The influences of mobile devices on family communication: - Impact on the quality of this time for family members.

-Neglect the interaction with those who are physically nearby.

- Negatively affects face-to-face interactions.

- Decreasing family cohesion and time together with their children - Kids

will learn from the smart phone negative behavior.

How to keep family life away the impact of mobile devices: Establish a rule in your house that there will be no using phones (or emailing or posting to social media, etc.) after a certain time at night.

-

Keep dinnertime free of cell phones, and use it as an opportunity to reconnect with each other and talk about your day.

-

Use an app to monitor how much the kids use their phones, and use it to track your own use.

-

Keep time with your spouse-like date night or catching up on the day before bedfree of cell phones.

-

The following pictures illustrate the students' activities and their production:

3. Activities to improve students' sense of responsibility to society 3.1. Sample application 1 - Unit 2: Cultural diversity (Version 2) •

Aim: Raise students' right awareness of drinking culture in Viet Nam.

•

Suggested activity: Discussion: Traditionally, alcohol is very popular in every party and celebration in Vietnam. Therefore, many accidents have been happening as a result of abusing alcohol. Discuss the consequences of abusing drinking culture in Vietnam. And, if you were allowed to change the situation of drinking in Vietnam, what would you do?

•

Time limit: 10 minutes

•

Preparation:

- Students: Prepare posters and pens for group work; think about consequences of drinking alcohol and measures to limit drinking.

- Teacher: Prepare some figures and chart about drinking culture in Vietnam and other countries in the world, a poster of suggested answers:

• Procedure: - Show the table and the chart for the students to watch - Ask them to give comments to the data about drinking culture in Vietnam, in comparison with other countries.

- Divide the class into groups of six to eight students - Ask them to work out the consequences and solutions to the problems.

- After 5 minutes, call the representatives of the groups to report their groups' production.

- Ask other groups to give comments - Teacher gives feedback and shows the suggested answers. • Suggested answers: Comments: The table and the chart show that while a lot of countries all over the world minimum the drinking age, Vietnam is one of few countries that do not. Besides, the consumption of beer in Vietnam is the highest while GDP per capita is ranked fourth of Southeast Asian countries.

Consequences of drinking: To the drinkers: -

Alcohol poisoning

-

High blood pressure, stroke, and other heart-related diseases

-

Liver disease

-

Nerve damage

-

Sexual problems

-

Permanent damage to the brain

To their family and society: -

Unintentional injuries such as car crash, falls, burns, drowning

-

Intentional injuries such as firearm injuries, sexual assault, domestic violence

-

Increased on-the-job injuries and loss of productivity

-

Increased family problems, broken relationships

If I were allowed to change, I would do something to limit drinking culture abuse, such as: - Limit the drinking ages - Prohibit driving after drinking 23

- Punish the people who are drunk and people who force others to drink.

- Ask people who drink on working day to get a fine.

- Levy a high tax on beer industry The following pictures illustrate the students' activities and their production:

3.2. Sample application 2 - Unit 8: Life in the future • Aim: Raise students' responsibilities for bettering the life in the future by improving the environment.

• Suggested activity: Discussion: Writer stated in line 9 that the optimists expect that "We will be living in a much cleaner environment, breathing fresher air and eating healthier foods''. What should we do so that this expectation will come true? Discuss some measures to stop environmental pollution and improve the environment.

•

Time limit: 10 minutes

•

Preparation:

- Teacher: Prepare a poster of suggested answers.

- Students: Prepare posters and pen for group work; find out the measures to improve the environment.

•

Procedure:

- Divide the class into groups of six-eight.

- Ask them to discuss the measures to improve the environment.

- After 5 minutes, call the representatives of the groups to report their groups' production.

- Ask other groups to give comments.

- Teacher gives feedback and shows the suggested answers.

• Suggested answers: Measures to improve the environment - Stop smoking or at least follow the “No Smoking” sign.

- Walk or ride a bicycle whenever possible.

- Never use open fires to dispose of wastes.

- Adopt the 3Rs of solid waste management: reduce, reuse and recycle.

- Start composting brown leaves in your yard and green scraps from your kitchen.

- Reconnect with nature.

- Use eco-friendly or biodegradable materials instead of plastic which are made up of highly toxic substances injurious to your health.

- Create your green space.

- Have a proper waste disposal system especially for toxic wastes.

- Never throw, run or drain or dispose into the water, air, or land any substance in solid, liquid or gaseous form that shall cause pollution.

- Do not cause loud noises and unwanted sounds to avoid noise pollution.

- Do not litter in public places.

- Industries should use fuel with lower sulphur content.

- Industries should monitor their air emissions regularly and take measures to ensure compliance with the prescribed emission standards.

- Industries should strictly follow applicable government regulations on pollution control.

- Organic waste should be dumped in places far from residential areas.

The following pictures illustrate the students' activities and their production:

3.3. Sample application 3 -Unit 10: Endangered species •

Aim: Raise students' responsibilities for protecting wildlife.

• Suggested activity: Role play: Pretend a TV reporter in a Wildlife World programme, report the situation of endangered species, the causes, the consequences of the extinction and suggest some measures to protect these species •

Time limit: 10 minutes

•

Preparation:

- Teacher: Prepare a poster of suggested answers

- Students: Prepare posters and pens for group work; find out the measures to protect wildlife.

•

Procedure:

-

Teacher explains the task and makes a model.

-

Divide the class into groups to work out the main ideas of the report

-

After 5 minutes, call the representatives of the groups to perform

-

Ask other groups to give comments

-

Teacher gives feedback and shows the suggested answers

•

Suggested answers:

Situation: over 8,300 plant species and 7,200 animal species are threatened with extinction, and many thousands more become extinct each year.

Causes: habitat destruction, commercial exploitation and pollution.

Consequences: a loss of biodiversity, loss of many medicines and other products.

Measures: Making a red list of endangered species, government enacts laws to protect wildlife.

Each individual should: - Learn about endangered species in your area.

- Protect wildlife habitat.

- Visit a national wildlife refuge, park or other open space.

- Reduce your use of water in your home and garden so that animals that live in or near water can have a better chance of survival.

- Limit using herbicides and pesticides - Recycle and buy sustainable products.

- Never purchase products made from threatened or endangered species.

wildlife, and report it as soon as you see it to your - Not participate in harassing wildlife, local state or federal wildlife enforcement office.

The following pictures illustrate the students' activities and their production:

3.4. Sample application 4-Unit 13: The 22nd SEA Games •

Aim: Arouse students' patriotism and national pride.

• Suggested activity: Discussion: How to show your patriotism and national pride?

•

Time limit: 10 minutes

•

Preparations:

- Students: Prepare posters and pens for group work; think about what they should do to show their patriotism and national pride.

- Teacher: Prepare 5 questions: Question 1: Do you often watch the sport events at the SEA Games?

Question 2: What song does each team always sing before each football match?

Question 3: What do the spectators fly when they cheer their national team, especially when their team wins the match?

Question 4: Why do they do that?

Question 5: And you, do you love our country?

Question 6: What do you do to show your patriotism and national pride?

•

Procedure:

- Ask students some questions above to lead in: Example: Teacher: Do you often watch the sport events at the SEA Games?

Student: Well, occasionally Teacher: What song does each team always sing before each football match?

Student: Of course, it is their national anthem Teacher: What do the spectators often fly when they cheer their national team, especially when their team wins the match?

Students: I'm sure it is their national flag Teacher: Why do they do that?

Students: Well, I think because they love their country and they are proud of it.

Teacher: And you, do you love our country?

Student: Yes, of course.

Teacher: What do you often do to show your patriotism and national pride? Let's discuss with your classmates and tell us your actions.

- Divide the class into groups of six to discuss the questions.

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- After 5 minutes, call some students to report their production.

- Ask other groups to give comments - Teacher gives feedback shows the suggested answers •

Suggested answers:

How to show patriotism and national pride: - Respect and study our national history - Honor the national heroes - Be grateful to the war invalids and the families of martyrs - Support the army and active-duty military.

- Keep our surroundings clean.

- Be proud ofcampaign abot the pros of our country.

- Celebrate the diversity of our country.

- Do volunteer work - Buy local, prefer indigenous products.

- Fly the flag on special occasions - Struggle against the enemy and reactionary.

- Take a more active part in socio-economic development, social welfare, poverty reduction, national construction and defence.

The following pictures illustrate the students' activities and their production:

3.5. Sample application 5 -Unit 14: International organizations • Aim: Promote good citizenship and cultivate the students' compassion.

• Suggested activity: Discussion: Of the following activities, which are The Red Cross' activities and which are the charity work you can participate in.

• Time limit: 10 minutes • Preparation:

- Students: Prepare posters and pens for group work; think about the charity work they can take part in.

-Teacher: Prepare a list of charity work, a work, and a poster of suggested answers.

Charity work - Helping disadvantages or handicapped children - Volunteering at a hospital, in the home of sick or old people.

- Collecting gifts for children’s hospitals.

- Raising money for a charity.

- Taking care of war invalids and the families of martyrs - Helping reduce the suffering of wounded soldiers, civilians, and prisoners of war in the war time.

- Collecting old clothes for children and people in remote and mountainous areas.

- Collecting trash or clean up a park to promote environmental awareness.

- Giving medical aid and other help to victims of major disasters such as floods, earthquakes, epidemics, and famines.

- Hosting an event to raise funds to help people and communities affected by a disaster.

- Collecting children’s books and other reading materials for shelters, libraries and schools, then ask if they need volunteer readers.

- Participating in a cleanup day at a local beach, trail, waterway or park.

- Helping people in mountainous areas.

The work sheet The Red Cross's activities

Activities you can participate in

…………………………………………

…………………………………………

………………………………………….

…………………………………………

………………………………………….

…………………………………………

………………………………………….

…………………………………………

………………………………………….

…………………………………………

………………………………………….

………………………………………….

…………………………………………

…………………………………………

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•

Procedure:

-

Show students the list of charity work.

- Divide the class into groups of six.

- Students discuss to put the activities into the right column.

- After 5 minutes, call some students to report the Red Cross's activities and the charity work they can participate in.

- Ask other groups to give comments - Teacher gives feedback and shows the suggested answers •

Suggested answers: The Red Cross's activities

Activities you can participate in

- Helping disadvantages or handicapped children

- Helping disadvantages or handicapped children

- Volunteer at a hospital, in the home of sick or old people.

- Taking part in directing the traffic

- Raise money for a charity.

- Collect gifts for children’s hospitals.

- Taking care of war invalids and the families of martyrs

- Raise money for a charity.

- Volunteer at a hospital, in the home of - Collect gifts for children’s hospitals. sick or old people.

- Help reduce the suffering of wounded soldiers, civilians, and prisoners of war in the war time.

- Give medical aid and other help to victims of major disasters such as floods, earthquakes, epidemics, and famines.

- Improve the lives of vulnerable people who are victims of natural disasters, poverty and health emergencies - Helping people in mountainous areas.

- Taking care of war invalids and the families of martyrs - Collect old clothes for children and people in remote and mountainous areas.

- Collect trash or clean up a park to promote environmental awareness.

- Collect children’s books and other reading materials for shelters, libraries and schools, then ask if they need volunteer readers.

- Participate in a cleanup day at a local beach, trail, waterway or park.

- Helping people in mountainous areas.

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The following pictures illustrate the students' activities and their production:

3.6. Sample application 6- Unit 15: Women in society •

Aim: Raise students' responsibilities for preventing family violence.

•

Suggested activity: Discussion: How to prevent family violence.

•

Time limit: 10 minutes

•

Preparations:

- Student: Prepare posters and pens for group work; find out the causes and solutions to family violence.

- Teacher: Prepare a picture of family violence, some questions for discussing and a poster of the suggested answers.

The questions: Question 1: Do you think that women are equal to men in society now?

Question 2: What matter do you think is happening in the picture?

Question 3: What do you think are causes of family violence?

Question 4: What will you do if you know someone is a victim of family violence?

Question 5: How can we help stop family violence?

•

Procedure:

- Show the picture for the students to guess the problem.

- Ask students some questions to lead in: Teacher: Do you think that women are equal to men in society now?

Student: Yes, I think they have gained equal rights to men.

Teacher: What matter do you think is happening in the picture?

Student: In my opinion it's family violence Teacher: Is this one of the most serious problems that women are suffering?

What may be causes of family violence and how to prevent family violence? Let's discuss to find out causes and solutions.

- Give students the three questions to discuss as suggestion to solve the problems: What do you think are causes of family violence?

What will you do if you know someone is a victim of family violence?

How can we help stop family violence?

- Divide the class into groups of six to discuss.

- After 5 minutes, call some pairs to present their production.

- Ask other groups to give comments.

- Teacher gives feedback. • Suggested answers: The causes of family violence are: - low academic achievement - cultural beliefs/traditional viewpoints - the men's low self-esteem - desire for power or control - mental illness - substance abuse If I know someone is a victim of family violence, I will: - ask them to tell me about what is happening to them.

- listen to them and let them know I believe them and what is being done to them is a crime.

- help them find the support they need.

How can we help stop family violence?

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- Learn more about family violence to recognize it and help people who may be victims - Report abuse when we see it - Think about our own actions and how to talk with others about violent actions - Volunteer with or join an organization that is dedicated to stopping family violence.

The following pictures illustrate the students' activities and their production:

3.7. Sample application 7-Unit 16: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations •

Aim: Raise students' responsibilities for the country's economic integration.

• Suggested activity: Discussion: Discuss the roles of the young to the country's economic integration, and what each student should do to meet the requirements of the country's economic integration.

•

Time limit: 10 minutes

•

Preparation:

-Students: Prepare posters and pens for group work; think about what they should do to meet the requirement of the country's economic integration.

- Teacher: Prepare 4 questions to discuss.

Question 1: When did Vietnam join ASEAN? Question 2: Do you think integrating is a chance or a challenge?

Question 3: What do you think about the roles of the young to our country's economic integration?

Question 4: What should the young do to meet the requirement of the economic integration?

• Procedure: - Teacher explains the task and asks students some questions to lead in: Teacher: When did Vietnam join ASEAN? Student: Vietnam joined ASEAN in 1995.

Teacher: Do you think integrating is a chance or a challenge?

Student: I think it is both a chance and a challenge.

Teacher: What do you think about the roles of the young to our country's economic integration?

Student: In my opinion, the young play an important role to our country's economic integration.

Teacher: What should the young do to meet the requirement of the economic integration? Let's work in groups and discuss the question.

- Divide the class into groups of six to discuss.

- After 5 minutes, call some students to report.

- Ask other groups to give comments.

- Teacher gives feedback and shows the suggested answers. •

Suggested answers:

What to do to meet the requirement of the economic integration: - Equip themselves with knowledge and information about international integration - Strengthen fitness and health - Improve qualifications, expertise and profession; - Preserve the national cultural identity - Study other countries' culture, history, religion, custom - Take part in activities of international youth exchanges...

- Studying hard to improve ability of foreign language and technology - Equip necessary soft skills such as: communication, teamwork, problem solving, initiative and enterprise, planning and organising, self-management,‌ The following pictures illustrate the students' activities and their production:

V. RESULTS AND COMMENTS 1. Results.

I applied these post-reading activities to teach my grade 12 students in the school year 2018-2019. In spite of some difficulties, we achieved considerable success. The effect of the activities helped our students realise what they should do for themselves, their school and society. This can be seen as the motivation for students to try to learn more. My students gradually gave up some negative habits; they behaved better and better; they paid attention to the lessons more and their sense of learning was improved. They also volunteered to take part in social activities organised by school and the community instead of being required as before.

We have carried out the survey again with the same questions for the same students from three classes last time. The survey was done the second time at the end of the second semester (after using these activities) to check how effective the activities have brought about. The table below shows the results of the survey before and after using the activities with the aim of improving the students' sense of responsibility.

Questions

Before using the activities

After using the activities

A. Normal

42%

25%

B. Important

35%

45%

C.Very important

23%

30%

2. How often do you A. Rarely think about your B. Sometimes responsibilities in your daily activities?

C. Usually

27%

3%

55%

25%

18%

72%

3. Do you find it necessary to be taught sense of responsibility in the class?

A. Unnecessary

9%

0%

B. Necessary

51%

52%

C. Very necessary

40%

48%

4. Do you learn much about sense of responsibility through your English lessons?

A. Little

30%

10%

B. Normal

62%

42%

C. Much

8%

38%

5. How much is your sense of responsibility to yourselves, your family and society?

A. Little

41%

13%

B. Normal

45%

35%

C. Much

4%

52%

1. Do you think how important sense of responsibility is?

Answers

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2. Comments.

The survey shows that in comparison with before using the interventional activities, most of the students have changed their awareness of their sense of responsibility. After using the activities, we have found that the students not only realized the importance of sense of responsibility but they also improved their sense of their responsibility. They found it necessary to be taught sense of responsibility. They learned much about sense of responsibility through English lessons as well, so they were aware of what they had to do, they acted more responsibly. In fact, their sense of responsibility to themselves, their families and society has risen effectively.

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PART III: CONCLUSION The study was started at the beginning of the previous school year, when I was assigned to teach five grade 12 classes. At first, I was very worried about my students' sense of learning and their behaviors. This is the reason why I tried to determine the causes and find out solutions. My solutions met a number of difficulties because of our students' poor ability of English. They were not confident to speak English and not enough vocabulary to express their ideas as well. However, with the aim of teaching sense of responsibility mainly, the accuracy of using language was not focused on. The students might not be able to express all what they wanted to say but at least they had been aware of what they should do. Besides, the students were encouraged to speak out their thoughts and opinion to suggest the solutions to the given problems with the help of the teacher and their group members. By using information technology, I was able to find out much useful information to carry out the study. Moreover, the study has been completed with the help of myschool’s Board of Directors, my colleagues and my students.

With the methods have been suggested in this study, the post-reading activities designed in the text book Tieng Anh 12 have been adapted completely.

The post-reading stage is not simple for students to comprehend or summarize the reading text any more. Instead, it gives students the chance to apply what they possess into their real life. Another success is that our students not only have chances to get a living lessons and improve their sense of responsibility they also improve their reading, speaking, teamwork skills and raise their creativity. It can be said that these activities are not completely effective. However, it is undeniable that they are quite practical. They have significantly contributed to improving our students' sense of responsibility recently. Our students have been aware of what they have to do for themselves, their families and society and practise in their real life. They have gradually improved their behaviors and sense of learning.

In fact, these are only some suggested activities; other teachers can design different post-reading activities as long as they can make students think about what they have to do for themselves, their families and society. We can also apply similar activities to improve students' responsibilities through post-listening stage.

Even for Tieng Anh 10 and 11 we can use post-reading stage with this aim to teach the grade 10 and 11. I personally think that teaching responsibility should be encouraged to apply into other subjects.

The measures have been given out are just from my own experiences during the process of teaching. Consequently, it must contain a number of weaknesses. I would like to get the comments and good idea from readers and other teachers so that the topic will become more interesting and perfect.

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REFERENCES 1.Adrian, D.Teach English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press in association with the British Council (1998) 2.Graham Crookes, A Practicum in TESOL: Development through Teaching Practice. Cambridge University Press (2003) 3. Harmer, J. How to teach English. London: Longman Press (1991) 4. Hoang Van Van, Tieng Anh 12 textbook (2008) 5. http://www.academia.edu 6.http://www.nclrc.org/essentials/reading/goalsread.htm 7.https://www.lexico.com/definition/responsibility 8.https://www.thefreedictionary.com/sense+of+responsibility 9. www.google.com.vn 10. www.teachhub.com

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