LESSON OVERVIEW

In this lesson about instant messaging, students watch a video, discuss the rules for instant messaging and write short messages to each other. 

VIDEO & DISCUSSION

In the warm-up activity students look at some phrases (e.g. Do Not Disturb, a thread, @all) and decide what they mean and where they could be used. They also discuss instant messaging apps and how they feel about them. Then, students look at some rules for instant messaging etiquette at work and decide which of them are true (e.g. Never message a person if their availability status is set to ‘unavailable’). They watch the video to check their answers. After that, they read some more ideas for instant messaging etiquette and decide how good the ideas are (e.g. using abbreviations, exchanging jokes and memes). This part of the lesson about instant messaging ends with a speaking task in which students share their experience. They also consider how important grammar and spelling in messages are. 

WRITING MESSAGES

Students move on to read some common messages and correct a mistake in each one. Then, they match the messages to the possible responses (e.g. I’m sorry, I’ll be five minutes late. – Thanks for the heads-up.). After that, students get cards with an incomplete chat conversation and complete them with their own ideas. Once they have finished, they work with a partner who has the original messages and compare their ideas. The cards with the conversations are provided in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. In the final stage of this lesson about instant messaging, students read five situations and write a short message for each of them (e.g. You need to message your manager asking for a day off.). Then, they exchange messages with their partner and ask them to respond.