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Cellphones are the imbilical cord of today’s youth. Instead of fighting against them, let’s use this interest to get them learning English!
Transl8it.com allows the teacher to enter English text and then get the “text message” equivalent. Simply copy this and handout to students. The students look at the text messaging and “decode” this into proper English. After they are done, ask the students to turn to the page in their book that you took the text/script from and check their answers! (or give them a handout of the original to check against / or get a student to put it on the board).
I have made several Transl8it.com games. The most popular being the “Pop Song” version where students decode song lyrics, then check and listen to the songs. Get them HERE on EFL Classroom 2.0.
Use text messaging to help your students with their writing skills.
This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.
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1 Response to Text Messaging – A writing lesson
Luke Martin
April 16th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
This is so great! I just did it with my advanced Middle school students! They loved it, especially because I told them that this is what American (/Western) middle schoolers do all the time! Using the Cingular “bff Jill” video is spot on! For homework I had them send me a text message, it was fun, challenging and relevant! It also teaches students to think about phonics.