READING AND VOCABULARY

MAD 4 MOBILES

Teenagers would rather use SMS text messaging to gossip about friends, a study shows.

Text messaging has become the main way teens communicate with friends, surpassing face-to-face contact, e-mail, and voice calling.

More than half of the 800 U.S. teenagers surveyed said they text on a daily basis to socialize and to chat with friends. Girls from 14 to 17 years old were the texting leaders, sending 100 messages a day. The youngest teenage boys were the least likely to text, and they send about 20 messages a day.

Overall, half of teens sent 50 or more messages each day, or 1,500 a month.

Analysis of the results showed one in seven became restless and irritable when they couldn't make phone calls.

Ninety per cent said they took their mobiles wherever they went. Seven per cent even said they would prefer to lose a job or relationship than give up their mobile.

'Getting phone calls can make you feel better about yourself - give you greater self-esteem,' Dr Sheffield said. 'Whereas not getting calls can make you feel down or less important.'

• Answer the following questions:

1. According to the study, what happens to teenagers when they can't make phone calls?
2. According to the text, how many sms texts are teenagers likely to send every day?
3. Is face-to-face communication the preferred one among teenagers? Why?

• Vocabulary.Find the words in the text which match with the definitions.

1. A report (often malicious) about the behavior of other people. _______
2. Abandon. ________________
3. Worried and uneasy. _________________
4. Every day. ________________
5. Within each other's sight or presence._____________
6. Including everything.______

SMS ABBREVIATIONS

Common abbreviations in sms texts

Word or phrase	Abbreviation(s)
As far as I know	afaik
Age/Sex/Location	a/s/l or asl
As soon as possible	ASAP
At the moment	atm
Be right back	brb
By the way	btw
Got to go	g2g or gtg
Great	gr8
I don't know	idk
Later	L8r
In my humble/honest opinion	imho
In my opinion	imo
Just kidding	jk
Laughing out loud / lots of love	lol
Laughing my ass off	lmao
Oh my god	omg
Rolling on the floor laughing	rofl
What the fuck?	wtf
Talk to you later	tty l8r or ttyl or t2yl

Practice now writing sms as an English speaker would in the following site:

http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/naturalenglish/elem/e_games/ne_elem_games_mobile01/

GRAMMAR

Revise the modal verbs and then do the exercises.

MODALS IN SONGS

LISTENING

Students should listen to the recording 3 times and try to answer the questions without looking at the script. Then, students may listen to the recording a fourth time looking at the script so as to correct the questions.

http://www.esl-lab.com/meet/meetsc1.htm

1. What is the caller's name?

2. What is his phone number?

3. Can the girl's father come to the phone?

4. Does the girl tell the caller her name?

5. When does the caller want the girl's father to call him?

WRITING

• Do you think that teenagers are addicted to mobiles?

• Write 3 things that you must do, 3 things that you can't do and 3 things that you don't have to do.

LEARNING IS GOOD

“Learning is good – it feels good.

It is right, it is natural,

It can be enjoyable,

And it is what we do here.

It is a natural act – like eating, sleeping, or breathing.”

Martin Haberman