Mobile phones

In this lesson, learners will first talk about how they use their mobile phones in a small group survey, then will have a discussion about mobile phones and their use, using phrases to show their opinion. Learners will then understand and practice a dialogue of a phone conversation between two friends, before writing and performing their own dialogue.

Learning outcomes

• do a survey about mobile phone use
• give opinions about mobile phones
• understand, perform and write a mobile phone call between friends

Materials 

• Lesson plan
• Student worksheet
• (Optional) Dialogue to cut up
• Presentation

Lead-in (5 minutes)

• Before showing the title slide of the presentation, saying the topic of the day, or giving out the worksheets, write the words ‘What am I? on the board. Read out the following clues one at a time and tell learners to write down what they think the item is that you are describing after each clue). Find out which learners guessed correctly.
• Almost everyone has one these days.
• I am usually in your pocket or your bag.
• You can use me to do many different things.
• I can make phone calls.  (answer: a mobile phone!)

Mobile phone survey (10 minutes)

• Ask learners to brainstorm different things that people use their mobile phone for. Set a time limit of 3 minutes.
• Show slide 2 or give learners the student worksheet and tell them to look at task 1. Tell them to choose 2 extra uses for mobiles. Put learners in groups of three to do the short survey. 
• After around five minutes/when most groups have finished, put learners in new groups/with a new partner. Show slide 3 or direct them to question b. They compare what they found. If time, invite some learners to share their findings with the class.

Our opinions (10 minutes)

• Show slide 4 or task 2 on the student worksheet. Put learners into pairs.
• Read through the questions with the class and make sure they understand the questions. Drill (you say, they repeat) the opinion language from the box in short phrases so that learners feel confident using it. 
• Tell learners to decide who is A and who is B. Learner A asks the questions first, and B responds. For a weaker class, give learners time  to prepare some answers.
• Monitor to encourage learners to give extended reasons for their answers and opinions. Monitor and make a note of good use of the opinion language or errors.
• If time, have the learners repeat the activity with a new partner.

Mobile phone dialogue - ordering (15 minutes)

• NOTE: There are two ways to do this activity: showing slide 5 / student worksheet task 3 OR to print and cut up the optional dialogue to cut up for each pair/small group. The cut-up option is an alternative for any learners who benefit from more hands-on/kinesthetic activities.
• Tell learners they need to put the dialogue in order. Allow pairs to check their answers with other pairs, before correcting with the whole class
• Show slide 6 to check answers/read them out or ask a pair to perform the dialogue. (Answers: 1 – c, 2- e, 3- g, 4- h, 5- b, 6- I, 7- a, 8- k, 9 – d, 10- f, 11-j) 
• Read question b with learners. Note that there is no specific answer, the point of this question is to make them read and understand the dialogue closely. Possible answers could be a birthday party. To guide them towards an answer, you could give additional questions: What is the relationship between the two people? How do you know? Where is the event taking place? What types of events do you have at home, with friends and family?
• Learners then do question c - practice reading the dialogue aloud. First drill any difficult words to focus on pronunciation (e.g., contractions – I’ve, I’m, you’re, you’ll). You could drill whole sentences to focus on intonation. 

Mobile phone dialogue - creating (15 minutes)

• Put learners in pairs. Tell learners they need to write a dialogue similar to the one in task 3/slide 7. There are 6 situations to choose from. Read through the options with the class. Elicit what could go in the gaps (e.g., cancel a trip to the cinema/park/city). Highlight that like the dialogue in task 3, the event (the gap) isn’t mentioned in the dialogue. Later (in step 3) another pair will guess the gap, the situation. The aim of this activity is to give the listeners a reason to listen closely.
• Monitor and help with language when needed. Make sure the situation is guessable.
• When pairs are ready, they join with another pair to perform their dialogues.

Reflect (5 minutes)

• Show slide 8 or read out the following questions: Which activity did you enjoy most today? What did you improve the most – your speaking or your writing?
• Give learners time to think, then join learners in pairs/small groups to share their reflections.
• If time, invite some learners to share with the class