The movie "Descendants of the Sun" on the Literature and English exam causes controversy

“To have a good essay topic, ensuring topicality and ideological education, teachers must have a deep understanding and skillful application of current social issues, especially issues related to youth,” said Dr. Pham Huu Cuong.

Recently, some teachers have included the Korean movie "Descendants of the Sun" in their English and literature exams.

Many students were excited to present their thoughts and feelings about their favorite movie. However, many parents objected to this way of asking questions.

Because, nowadays, many parents forbid their children from watching TV and Korean movies for fear of affecting their children's psychology, so many students are confused when taking this type of test. Moreover, in Vietnam, there are many historical and social stories that make students think, why do teachers give questions about Korean movies? Is this any different from promoting Korean culture?

Therefore, the question is how do we come up with an argumentative essay topic that is both interesting for students and representative, relevant, and not too confusing so that students can understand and do it.

Mr. Pham Trung Kien - Literature Teacher, Ha Long Specialized High School - Quang Ninh

Regarding this issue, Mr. Pham Trung Kien - Literature teacher at Ha Long Specialized High School - Quang Ninh said: "Issuing social argumentation is a good and important innovation, helping literature to be closer to life, making students, in addition to reading literary works, also pay attention to the social life that is taking place.

Suggesting social essays related to social issues, for example, an exam related to the movie "Descendants of the Sun" is also a good idea. However, a good teacher is someone who knows how to raise current issues from that movie that have an impact on young people such as: "Currently, many students are crazy about the characters in the movie Descendants of the Sun. What do you think about this phenomenon?" Or the topic: "The movie Descendants of the Sun is causing a lot of controversy on social networks. Please state your thoughts on how to behave on social networks."

Or recently, before the passing of singer Tran Lap, Dr. Pham Huu Cuong (Forever Learning Center) gave the following question: "In the song "Road to Glory", the late musician Tran Lap wrote: "No matter how far you walk on the rose-strewn path, your feet will still be filled with pain from the thorns."

With this test, students of the late 9X generation may not have listened to the music of Buc Tuong but can still do this test. Obviously, the test does not ask about musician Tran Lap, nor any song, but raises the question: The road to success.

According to Mr. Pham Trung Kien, a good social argumentative exam needs to ensure many factors, of which the two most important factors are: appropriate to the subject and stimulating creative inspiration and writing. Especially when creative inspiration and writing are often inspired by current issues such as the passing of talented musician Tran Lap, or the movie "Descendants of the Sun" .... Using the excuse of not watching the movie, not listening to music, not knowing so not being able to do the test is not entirely correct. Because we also have to see how specific the exam is.

Besides, Dr. Pham Huu Cuong said: “A good essay topic not only needs to be topical; but also needs to have educational significance in terms of ideology and morality, contributing to building and perfecting students’ personalities, helping them form positive life skills; at the same time, it must contain facts so that students can solve the problems posed by the topic.

Therefore, if the social argumentative essay topics related to the movie "Descendants of the Sun" cause students who did not watch the movie to "miss a beat", not be able to do the assignment, get low scores... then the essay does not meet the requirements.

Dr. Pham Huu Cuong - a teacher with more than 20 years of experience in preparing for Literature exams

To have a good essay topic, ensuring topicality and ideological education, the person writing the essay must have a deep understanding and skillful application of current social issues, especially issues related to youth.

In addition, the person who sets the test must have the skill to "hide" the data to solve the test right in the test - of course in some form of secret encryption. That means the key to solving the test is hidden right in the test, but only students with skills, knowledge, and the ability to research and think... can find it.

In the case of "Descendants of the Sun", if the person who created the questions only considered the movie as an excuse to ask students to express their thoughts on issues such as patriotism and human responsibility, love for humanity and the noble mission of doctors... then there would be very good essay topics, stimulating students' interest, effectively guiding students to good, humane values.

Ms. Lai Thi Thuong, a Literature teacher at Nam Dong Quan High School (Dong Hung - Thai Binh) believes that the Ministry of Education and Training is actively innovating the way questions are set to avoid students learning mechanically, to stimulate students' creativity and to prevent Literature from becoming a boring subject in general schools, which is the right policy.

A good social argumentative essay topic must demonstrate correctness, accuracy, and suitability to students' cognitive level. It must have specific, clear requirements, and avoid asking questions that are puzzling or beyond students' understanding.

In addition, it must focus on hot issues of life, directly related to young people, only then can it create interest for students to do the test. Moreover, it must be given in an open way so that students have the right to express their own thoughts, feelings, emotions and assessments./.

According to Infonet