English on Twitter

f you want to practise your English, get on twitter!

If you aren't familiar with Twitter, it's a way of keeping in touch with people via short messages (tweets). It's free, but you need to set up an account. You have limited space (160 characters) to write a short profile (bio) about yourself, and to say where you are. Then all you need to do is to start "following" people to read their tweets.

You can use Twitter to make friends and practise English, to ask questions or to get help, and to stay in touch with family and friends around the world. You can also post links to sites or articles that might be interesting to other people. Some people also use Twitter to find out about job opportunities.

Twitter is great for practising English, because you can't write very much! There's a limit of 140 characters on your tweets, meaning that you have to write short messages.

Tips for tweets

- omit articles and prepositions to make your message shorter
(a / an / the / to / for etc)

- use a link shortening service like Tinyurl to avoid using up characters (like "www." in a url)

- use short words rather than long words

- don't include the whole of someone else's tweet when you reply

- use abbreviations to shorten your messages and stay within the 140 character limit.

Exercise 1

What do these abbreviations stand for?

RT (= retweet)

Tx
C
u
w
w/
pls
btw

Exercise 2

Shorten these tweets to as few characters as possible.

For example:

I'm going to the Book Fair in Cairo next Tuesday. Is there anyone else going? (77 characters)
= Going 2 book fair Cairo Tues. Anyone else going? (48 characters)

1. I need some help in learning English. What's your favourite site? (65 characters)
(Hint: Aim for 55 characters)

2. I've got an English exam today. Wish me luck! (45 characters)
(Hint: Aim for 36 characters)

3. I'm thinking about going to London next summer to study English. Has anyone got any recommendations for language schools? (121 characters)
(Hint: Aim for 84 characters)