LEVEL: A2-C1
GRADE: any
LENGTH: 5-10 minutes
TOPIC: using out-of-school English while messaging
HOW TO:
First, discuss with students when and how they use English outside of the classroom. One of the suggestions should be communicating with people on different platforms (Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Discord, etc.).
After that, pair students up and tell them to choose one platform where they will communicate.
Give them a prompt (for example asking for help with homework or gossiping about something that happened at school) and ask them to message each other.
It is always good to establish for how long you expect them to communicate (3-5 min should be enough) so they will not just send 2 sentences and feel like they are done. We want to boost natural communication.
You should discuss beforehand if using abbreviations and online language is okay or not.
The first couple of times when you do this exercise, I would suggest telling students at the beginning, that you will want to see their conversations afterward, just so they stick to the topic given and you can correct their mistakes. After doing this exercise a few times, you can stop doing that.
