20 March 2013 / by Radmila Gurkova

What's up with WhatsApp?!

THE EFFECT OF WHATSAPP ON RELATIONSHIPS

WhatsApp is an instant messaging application that is changing the world of social relations. And it's free!

"It's great technology; it facilitates interaction and the exchange of information in real time," said Enrique Garcia Huete, a professor of psychology from Madrid. The main novelty with respect to other communication channels, is that WhatsApp displays the user’s information; you can see if the user is online, their chosen profile picture and, most of all, whether or not the user has read your message.

Unfortunately, WhatsApp is also causing family crises and tension among friends. Suspicion arises when the sender of the message sees that the receiver has read the message but does not instantly respond. Unlike unanswered emails and phone calls, instant messaging applications require immediate response. "This is the perfect channel to enhance relations in the first phases of infatuation, but then it can lead to problems if one person becomes obsessed,” says Garcia Huete.

VIDEO LINK URL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIGb1jZXCV0

DEBATE QUESTIONS:

What do you think of WhatsApp and other instant messaging applications?

How often do you use WhatsApp/instant messaging?

How important is it for you to communicate with your friends/family via intstant messaging?

Has communication via WhatsApp ever caused problems in your social relationships (with friends/family/significant other)?

How do you react when you don't receive an immediate response?

What are the advantages of using WhatsApp?

What are the disadvantages?

Do you think there is a difference between communicating via WhatsApp, email, and phone calls? What is it?

How do you think applications like WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter affect the younger generation?

TARGET LANGUAGE

INSTANT MESSAGING: A form of communication that offers quick transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver.

EXCHANGE: The act of giving one thing and receving another.

ENHANCE: Intensify the quality, value and performance of something.

REAL TIME: The actual time in which an event occurs.

CHANNELS: A medium for communicating data from one location to another.

CRISES: The plural of crisis.

ARISE: When a problem or situation becomes apparent.

UNANSWERED: Not responded to.

12

June 2014

What makes a good ESL teacher. Preparation

by Radmila Gurkova

What are the qualities that make a good ESL teacher? When asked at a job interview what makes a good ESL teachers, candidates often praise personal traits such as patience, creativity, knowledge, skills, empathy, experience… But what if you have just finished your TEFL course and are not that experienced yet. Does that mean y...

30

May 2014

FM - Unifying format criteria for TEFL activities. The cherry on the cake!

by Radmila Gurkova

On debate: We need to unify format criteria when creating TEFL activities in order to create the perfect activity. The teachers creating activities and the ones correcting them have to use the same criteria. We agreed to: Creating st...

30

May 2014

TEFL classes by videoconference for elementary level students.

by Radmila Gurkova

TEFL classes by videoconference are often related to high level students. How should our teaching change in order to grant successful and exciting learning experience to our students? On debate: Elementary level stu...

16

May 2014

ESL activity lab. Creating functional beginners material - I play!

by Radmila Gurkova

The purpose of this piece of ESL activity belonging to our activities section for beginners is to introduce the verb 'play'. The previous ESL activity included the verb 'like' as well as 'play' so we removed the verb to like in order to simplify the activity. We introduced 4 Sports which all add something different to the ESL...

13

May 2014

ESL activities for beginners - a new ESL activity is born

by Radmila Gurkova

If you think these faces are too serious and concentrated, you are about right. The guys you are seeing in the picture, part of our Oxbridge TEFL teacher team in Madrid, are deeply engaged in creating ESL activities for beginners. Four teachers. One activity. An ESL activity for beginner learners of English t...

08

May 2014

How to teach beginners English as a foreign language- I want, I don't want

by Radmila Gurkova

How to teach beginners English as a foreign language in the target language only is sometimes a headache for ESL teachers. As it turned out, teaching the function I WANT in English without translating is not that easy. Students tend to confuse its meaning with I LIKE because this structure appears in similar contexts. How to teach beginners I...

20

March 2014

My favorite ESL class

by Radmila Gurkova

We asked different teachers about their favorite ESL class. We wanted them to explain what makes a great ESL class really memorable. We often hear teachers complaining about certain students and classes that were difficult. It's much more productive and rewarding to hear about TEFL teacher's favorite class...

14

March 2014

Positive learning environment: Learn from sports and apply to ESL classes to create the best environment for your students

by Radmila Gurkova

What is the best learning environment and how can we create a positive learning environment in our ESL classes? What can we learn from sports about positive learning environments? ...

07

March 2014

How to teach pronunciation through ESL activities. Say it clearer, not louder

by Radmila Gurkova

The OxbridgeTEFL community launched the project of how to teach pronunciation through ESL activities as a result of the necessity of creating specific tools -apart from the usual work on pronunciation through vocabulary activities- that would target Spanish learners' pronunciation. What moved us ...

27

February 2014

My Top 5 Reasons to do a TEFL course: featuring India Boddy

by Radmila Gurkova

Maki...

Contact us

20 March 2013 / by Radmila Gurkova

What's up with WhatsApp?!

12

30

30

16

13

08

20

14

07

27