Let’s play with emojis

Objectives

Emojis (and picto’s) provide a universal language for expressing emotions and ideas. By developing visual literacy, we can navigate this visual world and connect with others more easily.

This activity aims at

• Becoming familiair with tools used for visual communication
• Learning to interpret and use online communication tools effectively
• Being able to use visual input to communicate more freely

Material

Mobile phones, WhatsApp, computers, paper and pencils.

Preparation

30-60 minutes for preparation (getting familiair with website, selecting examples).

Instructions

In this activity, participants will interact with, and discuss emojis.

You could start the activity by setting up a Whatsapp group consisting of all participants and sending some emojis to this group. Ask the participants about the meanings of the emojis and encourage them to share emojis in the WhatsApp group as well. There is a chance that some participants will have a more observing role at first. Make sure to involve these people as well, especially later on.

• If necessary, use nonverbal communication or role-playing to explain the meaning of emojis.
• Discuss emojis that directly represent emotions and those that refer to other activities.
• Review when it’s suitable to use specific emojis. You can use some examples. When do you use a grumpy emoji or an emoji with a green face? Does it matter who you’re communicating with or what event is happening?
• Discuss strategies for resolving misunderstandings that can arise from using emojis.
• Ask participants which emoji they use most frequently (íf they use emojis).
• Explore the different skin tones that emojis can have. Are they aware of this option? Which skin tone do they prefer?
• Explore this online emojipedia together: https://emojipedia.org
• Examine the most popular emojis and explore the various categories.
• Now, provide participants with two tasks to complete in small groups:
• Review which emojis from the most popular list you aren’t familiar with. Try to find or guess their meanings.
• Together, choose three emojis from the website that you really like and want to use. Draw the emojis on paper.
• Review and discuss the results as a whole group.

Variant

You can add the use of abbreviations in online communication, like Yolo, FOMO or LOL, and maybe some that are being used in the new language. Explore these together. Which abbrevations are known, which ones are new to them?

For language level moderate or experienced:
Invite participants after they have done the activity to design their own emoji. What emoji do they feel is missing? Or how would they change the appearance of an existing emoji?