Date: March 24, 2005
Level: Pre-Intermediate +
Downloads: This Lesson (Word Doc) | Class Handout (Word Doc) | Class Handout (PDF)

THE ARTICLE

The war to provide bigger, free email storage is on. Yahoo has just announced it will quadruple its inbox space to one gigabyte from April. This is the third time Yahoo has greatly increased its storage space in the past nine months; its inbox was four megabytes last summer, and then increased to 100MB, and later to 250MB. Its big rival, Google’s Gmail, started the storage war last April by enticing the world with a massive 1GB, which was 250 times bigger than Yahoo’s paltry 4MB. Microsoft’s Hotmail will now need to increase its storage, currently at 250MB, to keep up with the 1GB providers. Gmail has so far been in a testing period, but is predicted to raise the ante by offering a beefed-up 2GB to stay ahead of the pack when it starts offering email accounts through its website. Joining Gmail is still by invitation only. Yahoo has denied its 1GB upgrade is in response to Gmail, saying it was to keep in line with what Yahoo users wanted from the company. A Yahoo spokesperson said people are now storing things like photos in their inboxes, which requires a larger capacity.

WARM UPS

1. CHAT: Talk in pairs or groups about email / storage space / Yahoo! / Hotmail / Gmail / online advertisements / spam / virus protection / phishing…

To make things more dynamic, try telling your students they only have one minute (or 2) on each chat topic before changing topics / partners. Change topic / partner frequently to increase conversation.

2. EMAIL BRAINSTORM: Spend one minute writing down all of the different words you associate with the word ‘email’. Share your words with your partner / group and talk about them.

3. MY EMAIL HISTORY: Talk to your partner / group about your history with email – the first time you used it, the experiences you have had, the number of accounts you set up etc. Use the prompts below in your conversations:

• email space
• my daily email routine
• attachments
• special email abbreviations and emoticons
• hates
• important part of my life
• free
• mobile phone
• spam
• photos

4. OPINIONS: Talk about these with your partner.

• Google’s Gmail is best – it’s revolutionary.
• Email should always be free.
• Email should never include advertising.
• People who send spam should go to prison for 25 years.
• Email is dangerous.
• Voice mail will one day replace email.
• Our written language skills are going down because of email.
• I cannot live without email.
• Spam would disappear if no one clicked on the links in the spam mail.
• We need 10GB of free space, not 1GB.

PRE-READING IDEAS

1. WORD SEARCH: Students look in their dictionaries / computer to find collocates, other meanings, information, synonyms … of the words ‘storage’ and ‘space’.

2. TRUE / FALSE: Look at the headline and guess whether these sentences are true or false:

1. The war to provide bigger, free email storage is off.  T / F
2. Yahoo will triple its inbox space from 250MB to 1 gigabyte.  T / F
3. This time last year, Yahoo’s inbox was just 4MB.  T / F
4. Hotmail started the storage war.  T / F
5. Google’s Gmail was 250 times larger than Yahoo’s mailbox.  T / F
6. Anyone can join Gmail through Google’s homepage.  T / F
7. Yahoo will start a 1GB service because of Gmail.  T / F
8. A Yahoo spokesperson said customers need more space for photos.  T / F

3. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article:

(a)	war	raise the stakes
(b)	storage	luring
(c)	quadruple	battle
(d)	rival	memory
(e)	enticing	measly
(f)	paltry	up to date
(g)	up the ante	competitor
(h)	beefed-up	increase four-fold
(i)	ahead of the pack	strengthened
(j)	in line	in the lead

4. PHRASE MATCH: Match the following phrases from the article (sometimes more than one combination is possible):

(a)	The war	with a massive 1GB
(b)	it will quadruple	is on
(c)	the third time	with the 1GB providers
(d)	big	only
(e)	enticing the world	its inbox space
(f)	Hotmail will now need	in line with
(g)	to keep up	of the pack
(h)	stay ahead	rival
(i)	by invitation	in the past nine months
(j)	to keep	to increase its storage

 

WHILE READING ACTIVITIES

1. GAP-FILL:  Put the words on the right into the gaps.

Yahoo also to offer 1GB mailbox

The __________ to provide bigger, free email storage is on. Yahoo has just announced it will quadruple its inbox space to one gigabyte from April. This is the third time Yahoo has __________ increased its storage space in the past nine months; its inbox was four megabytes last summer, and then increased to 100MB, and later to 250MB. Its big __________, Google’s Gmail, started the storage war last April by __________ the world with a massive 1GB, which was 250 times bigger than Yahoo’s __________ 4MB. Microsoft’s Hotmail will now need to increase its storage, currently at 250MB, to keep up with the 1GB providers. Gmail has so far been in a testing period, but is predicted to __________ the ante by offering a beefed-up 2GB to stay ahead of the pack when it starts offering email accounts through its website. Joining Gmail is still by invitation only. Yahoo has __________ its 1GB upgrade is in response to Gmail, saying it was to __________ in line with what Yahoo users wanted from the company. A Yahoo spokesperson said people are now storing things like photos in their inboxes, which requires a larger capacity.

rival keep war enticing up denied greatly paltry

2. TRUE/FALSE:  Students check their answers to the T/F exercise.

3. SYNONYMS:  Students check their answers to the synonyms exercise.

4. PHRASE MATCH:  Students check their answers to the phrase match exercise.

5. QUESTIONS: Students make notes for questions they would like to ask the class about the article.

6. VOCABULARY:  Students circle any words they do not understand. In groups, pool unknown words and use dictionaries to find the meanings.

POST READING IDEAS

1. GAP-FILL: Check the answers to the gap-fill exercise.

2. QUESTIONS:  Students ask the discussion questions they thought of above to their partner / group / class. Pool the questions for all students to share.

3. VOCABULARY: As a class, go over the vocabulary students circled above.

4. STUDENT-GENERATED SURVEY: Pairs/Groups write down 3 questions based on the article. Conduct their surveys alone. Report back to partners to compare answers. Report to other groups / the whole class.

5. ‘STORAGE’ / ‘SPACE’: Students make questions based on their findings from pre-reading activity #1.

6. DISCUSSION:

1. What was interesting in this article?
2. Were you surprised by anything in this article?
3. How much space do you need?
4. Which email provider do you use and why?
5. Would you change provider (and address) if they offered 2GB?
6. How important is email to you?
7. What would life be like without email?
8. How often do you write real letters – with a pen?
9. Do you prefer receiving real letters (from the post office) or emails?
10. Do you send birthday cards or e-cards?
11. What do you do with spam mail?
12. How angry do you get with spam?
13. Do you ever open attachments?
14. Do you chat online?
15. Have you ever had a phishing mail?
16. What’s the best thing about email?
17. What’s the worst thing about email?
18. Would you prefer voicemail (no need to write, just record your message and send)?
19. Have you ever used Microsoft’s Messenger or Apple’s iChat?
20. How about video mail, where a webcam videos your message and then you send it to your friends or bank manager?
21. What are the dangers of email?
22. Do you mind if your mail contains advertising?
23. Teacher / Student additional questions.

HOMEWORK

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find information on phishing. Share your findings with your class next lesson.

3. MEGAMAIL: Imagine you are boss of YAGOOMAIL, the world’s largest email provider. Create your plan for the best email service ever. Present this in your next class.

4. SPAM LETTER: Write a letter to the boss of a company that sends you 10 spam mails every day. You are very, very, very ANGRY! In your next class, vote on who has the angriest letter.

ANSWERS

TRUE / FALSE:

1. The war to provide bigger, free email storage is off.  F
2. Yahoo will triple its inbox space from 250MB to 1 gigabyte.  F
3. This time last year, Yahoo’s inbox was just 4MB.  T
4. Hotmail started the storage war.  F
5. Google’s Gmail was 250 times larger than Yahoo’s mailbox.  T
6. Anyone can join Gmail through Google’s homepage.  F
7. Yahoo will start a 1GB service because of Gmail.  F (T!?)
8. A Yahoo spokesperson said customers need more space for photos.  T

SYNONYM MATCH:

(a)	war	battle
(b)	storage	memory
(c)	quadruple	increase four-fold
(d)	rival	competitor
(e)	enticing	luring
(f)	paltry	measly
(g)	up the ante	raise the stakes
(h)	beefed-up	strengthened
(i)	ahead of the pack	in the lead
(j)	in line	up to date

 

PHRASE MATCH:

(a)	The war	is on
(b)	it will quadruple	its inbox space
(c)	the third time	in the past nine months
(d)	big	rival
(e)	enticing the world	with a massive 1GB
(f)	Hotmail will now need	to increase its storage
(g)	to keep up	with the 1GB providers
(h)	stay ahead	of the pack
(i)	by invitation	only
(j)	to keep	in line with

GAP FILL:

Yahoo also to offer 1GB mailbox

The war to provide bigger, free email storage is on. Yahoo has just announced it will quadruple its inbox space to one gigabyte from April. This is the third time Yahoo has greatly increased its storage space in the past nine months; its inbox was four megabytes last summer, and then increased to 100MB, and later to 250MB. Its big rival, Google’s Gmail, started the storage war last April by enticing the world with a massive 1GB, which was 250 times bigger than Yahoo’s paltry 4MB. Microsoft’s Hotmail will now need to increase its storage, currently at 250MB, to keep up with the 1GB providers. Gmail has so far been in a testing period, but is predicted to up the ante by offering a beefed-up 2GB to stay ahead of the pack when it starts offering email accounts through its website. Joining Gmail is still by invitation only. Yahoo has denied its 1GB upgrade is in response to Gmail, saying it was to keep in line with what Yahoo users wanted from the company. A Yahoo spokesperson said people are now storing things like photos in their inboxes, which requires a larger capacity.