Here's a quick activity to help you learn about internet safety and English spellings for texting.
Task:
- This is a safety advertisement that was designed to inform young people in the UK about internet safety.
Click the image to make it bigger- Look at the tips and try to write them with 'proper' English spellings.
- Once you have done this you can post your answers in the comments to this page and we'll see who is the first to get them all right.
Remember that this kind of 'text' spelling is not acceptable in formal or academic writing in English and many older people are annoyed by it (and don't understand it).
- If you want to read a newspaper article about this from the British Newspapers click here: The £3,000 'txt-spk' poster that 'undermines English teaching'
Do people in your country change the spelling of words when they send SMS text messages?
Please leave us a comment and tell us all about text messaging in your country.
Come back tomorrow for more EFL ESL activities.
Related links for teachers:
- Listening Dictation Puzzles fo EFL ESL
- Interactive multiple choice activities
- Microblogging for EFL with Plurk
Nik Peachey
2 comments:
Hi Nik, thanks for the comment on my post on txtspeak. Have you used this sort of activities in class? What are the results? Is it perceived as useful?
IMHO there's no doubt they're much needed anyway. It's all about useful and practical knowledge, isn't it? How long will it take since publishers for instance include this in their textbooks?
Hi Elena
I haven't used these in class as I sadly don't get 'in class' much these days. My classroom is the Internet. My blogs are a result of being a frustrated teacher who has no students.
If you try them let me know how it goes.
I think publishers are very wary of being controversial and of materials that quickly date. Think it's down to us teachers.
Best
Nik
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