- Pre teach lexis related to the functioning of phones: To turn on, Password, Where are the notes? App etc..
- On a piece of paper students write a question or short sentence, e.g. “What is your favourite thing about learning English?”
- Students dictate their question/sentence to the person on their left in letters without any punctuation or spaces (double u, aitch, a etc) for students on their left to type into the notes or a message on their phones.
- Students pass their phone to the left and the next student has to ask questions to turn the phone on, find the dictation and decipher it.
For a longer version students could pass the phone between each other and dictate several sentences, or they could dictate using lexical items as an amended version of the NATO phonetic alphabet. So instead of Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, students could use random lexis (Ant, Biscuit, Canoe), or lexis from a particular subject area for examples food, animals, countries, fruit (Apple, Banana, Cherry).
If you try this activity, let me know how it goes in the comments!