PENTRU OBȚINEREA GRADULUI DIDACTIC I MEANS OF EXPRESSING FUTURITY IN ENGLISH AND HOW WE TEACH THEM Coordonator științific, Autor, Prof. Dr. Nadina… [306147]
[anonimizat] I
[anonimizat],
Prof. Dr. Nadina Vișan Prof. [anonimizat],
Fierbinți-Târg, Ialomița
2019
Contents…
[anonimizat]. There are different verb forms to express future and choosing between one tense or another is sometimes ambiguous for foreign learners. It is not possible to provide easy and comprehensive rules in order to describe the differences between the possible forms as the verb form is often the speaker’s choice and it depends on how the speaker sees the event at the moment of speaking. Lexical time words/phrases are also very important in indicating that a sentence refers to the future.
One important distinguishing feature between the future forms is the moment of decision in relation to “now” and the certainty of arrangements and the attitudes held at the moment of speaking. There are also several other ways to talk about the future without using a future verb tense as described later on.
[anonimizat], guesses, attitudes, willingness, intentions, time-tabled events etc. Thus, this paper is meant to give a clearer understanding of future structures by looking into each one and contrasting them and also to provide consistent lesson plans and practice about how to teach them effectively at an intermediate level.
[anonimizat]-[anonimizat], [anonimizat] (realia) and require the students to work out the rules by themselves.
[anonimizat]/[anonimizat].
[anonimizat]; yet, the grammatical structures remain quite the same and have not lost their importance. [anonimizat]. “[anonimizat]”. (English Grammar. [anonimizat], e-book, 2010)
The intermediate students must be given a [anonimizat]/[anonimizat], regarding the importance of grammar teaching. [anonimizat]-[anonimizat], [anonimizat]ners in performing such tasks effectively. They ought to make students realize that what they are learning during the English class is useful in real life situations, in accordance with their interests and age and least but not last, grammar learning can be fun and should be a friend who inspires confidence and comfort.
I have chosen this topic in order to clarify some aspects regarding futurity, mention difficulties which my students have faced with future forms, provide practice/activities and lesson plans for teaching these forms at an intermediate level (students aged 12-14) and give examples of various exercises I have encountered in handbooks while teaching future tenses. Some of the exercises in the handbooks I have been using are ambiguous as they require multiple choices.
This paper is divided into the following chapters:
Chapter I, entitled Future Tenses, which provides an overview of:
Timetable future (present simple with future time marker),
Diary future (present continuous with future time marker),
Will/Shall Future,
Be Going To
The Future Continuous,
The Future Perfect Simple,
The Future Perfect Continuous,
The Future-in-the-Past
Other means of expressing Future Time – be to, be about to, be due to, be on the edge/ brink/ point/verge of, be likely to, be fixing to, be bound to
Futurity verbs
Idiomatic phrases when talking about future
Chapter II, entitled Activities and Lesson Plans for the Intermediate Level for teaching futurity
Chapter III, entitled Types of exercises from handbooks in use, intermediate level
CHAPTER I – FUTURE TENSES
In Topics of Linguistics 2006, p 337, Renaat Declerk gives the following definition for the future tense, “The future tense locates a situation time in the post-present and normally expresses ‘pure future’. ‘Futurish forms’ are not future tense forms and do not express pure future.” According to the same author, “in English, future tense forms are not built by means of a special suffix but by means of the present tense of one of the auxiliaries will or shall (the latter in the first person only) or of the semiauxiliary be going to (which, however, can also be used as a ‘futurish form).
For example:
According to the weather forecast it will / is going to rain tomorrow.
We shall / will all die one day.
It is typical of the future tense that the speaker merely makes a prediction, i. e. he just expresses what he thinks will happen in the post-present. In the literature this is known as the expression of ‘pure future’.
In Meg {is leaving / is going to leave / is to leave / leaves} tomorrow, a ‘futurish’ tense form is used. Be going to can be used to build such a futurish tense form, but it may also form part of a future tense form. In the latter case it refers exclusively to the post-present, just like the future tense auxiliary will.”
As pointed out by Alexander Tokar in Introduction to English Morphology, 2012, p.198, the future tense meaning is not a temporal but a modal meaning. The point here is that no matter how certain you might be about your future plans, a future event is always an event that may or may not take place. Consider, for example,
I will travel to Paris soon.
Even if the speaker has already booked the flight to Paris and has already made a hotel booking, it remains a prediction: it cannot be excluded that something will happen while driving to the airport and thus will not be able to travel to Paris.
This leads us to the conclusion that the future tense is different from both the past tense and the present tense in that while the latter denote real events that either coincide with or precede the tense locus, the former denotes unreal events that may or may not take place in the future. Accordingly, the future tense must be analyzed not as a member of the tense grammeme but as grammeme but as an instance of so-called epistemic modality, i.e. a type of modality which is concerned with "the degree of certainty the speaker has that what s/he is saying is true" (Haan 2006: 29). That is, the future will of the above sentence is a modal verb which expresses more certainty than e.g. the epistemic may of I may travel to Mexico soon 'it's possible that I will travel to Mexico soon. But I am not certain about this'.
Futurity is sometimes indicated by modal verbs, other than will and shall.
The weather may improve next week.
You must visit us soon.
It is also indicated by semi-auxiliaries, such as be sure to, be bound to, be likely to and others and by verbs, such as hope, plan, decide etc.
Timetable future (present simple with future time marker)
This form is used to show:
Scheduled or regular timetables events/calendar.
Examples: The bus leaves at 1.30 pm.
The plane takes off at two o’clock.
There is an entire range of verbs commonly used is such situations, such as: start, end, begin, leave, end, depart, arrive, come, open, close, set off, land, take off etc.
Personal plans which rely on scheduled services:
Examples: We arrive in Bucharest at ten o’clock in the morning, visit the Village
Museum, have lunch and leave on the four o’clock bus.
I leave on the six o’clock train.
Personal plans which form a part of a schedule, when speaking of a series of proposed future actions, like plans for a journey:
Example: We go shopping on Monday, go to the Aquarium on Tuesday and visit museums on Wednesday.
It would sound a bit clumsy to say We are going shopping on Monday, going to the Aquarium on Tuesday and visiting museums on Wednesday.
According to Rosemary Atkins in Teaching Tenses, 1992, timetable future is used “when the speaker conceptualizes the event as a fact, a future event which occurs quite independently of his perception.” Thus, in the second use (b), the simple present could mean that this part of the plan is not necessarily made by the subject of the sentences. The event is determined by what the speaker sees as an external force majeure. This may be natural or appropriate timetable-making body:
Christmas day falls on a Friday this year.
What time does the sun rise next Sunday?
Manchester United plays away this weekend.
This tense can be used with a time expression for a definite future arrangement: I leave tonight. The girls finish school on Friday. , instead of the more normal present continuous tense: I am leaving tonight. The girls are finishing school on Friday.
The differences between simple present and present continuous are:
The simple present is more impersonal than the continuous. The sentence I am leaving tonight would probably imply that I have decided to leave, it is my decision, whereas I leave tonight could mean that this plan is not necessarily made by me.
The simple present can also sound more formal than the continuous. For example, a big shop planning to open a new branch is more likely to say Our branch opens next week, instead of Our branch is opening next week.
The simple present is also used to denote future actions/events:
in adverbial clauses of time and condition after the conjunctions when, until, till, as soon as, after, before, while, if, unless, by the time, on condition that, provided, unless etc.
Examples: I will write to you as soon as I arrive there.
We will go out when it stops raining.
She will not come unless you invite her.
Provided the shop is open, I could find some champaign.
However, in object clauses introduced by when and if, it is the simple future tense that is used to express future actions:
I wonder if he will recognize me.
Do you have any idea when the book will come out?
in adverbial clauses of concession introduced by conjunctions even if, even though, no matter how, whenever, whatever, however etc.
Even if she is angry, I will tell her the truth.
No matter how long it takes, I will get that job.
in some special questions, such as: When do we start?/ Where do we go now?/ What do we do next?
with suppose, supposing, what if, at the beginning of a sentence:
Suppose they buy a bigger car – how will they pay for it? (Supposed they bought is also possible)
The present simple is also used to give directions:
You take the second on the left and then turn right.
There is futurity, but not prediction. It is one possible course of action if you want to arrive at the destination.
“Diary Future” (present continuous + future time marker)
This tense is used when we talk about future events which have already been planned or decided (in the speaker’s view).
Affirmative forms- Full form (Spoken/short form):
I am (‘m) cleaning
he/she/it is (‘s) cleaning
you/we/they are (‘re) cleaning
Negative forms:
I am not (‘m) not cleaning
he/she/it is (‘s) not ( isn’t) cleaning
you/we/they are (‘re) not (aren’t) cleaning
Interrogative forms:
Am I cleaning?
Is he/she/it cleaning?
Are you/we/they cleaning?
With a future time marker: I’m cleaning my room tonight.
We’re leaving soon.
Sam’s heading off at ten o’clock.
It can be also used when there is an implied time reference through mention of an event that suggests a time: We’re having the meeting before lunch.
I’m leaving when she tells me I can.
But future reference is also possible without any of these as it depends on the context. For example, two teenagers talking at a party:
A: Can you stay any longer? Don’t forget your bus leaves in ten minutes.
B: Of course! Mum is picking me up.
In this example, B suggests that there has been a prior arrangement for her mum to pick her up from the party.
According to Rosemary Aitken (in Teaching Tenses), there are the following questions to draw the target:
What are you doing tomorrow? (often an invitation)
What are you doing tomorrow? → I’m working (all day).
What am I doing tomorrow? (often a request for instructions or a reminder about engagements)
What am I doing tomorrow? →You are meeting the chairman at 10 o’clock.
Would you like to (+verb) Shall we (+verb)? (where the invitation is not possible because of previous arrangements)
Would you like to go to the cinema tonight? →I’m sorry, I can’t. I’m visiting grandmother.
Why don’t you/ can’t you (+verb+implied future time)?
Why don’t you talk to the headmaster about it? → I am seeing him in the morning.
Why can’t you come to the theatre? →I’m revising for an exam this weekend .
What are your plans?
What are your plans for the summer holiday? →I’m visiting Spain in July.
When can you/will you be able to (+verb) (fitting something into a schedule)
When can you fix the roof of my house? →I’m coming to your village tomorrow. I’ll do it then.
NOTES:
The spoken negative has two possible forms:
He isn’t coming tomorrow. , which tends to be more neutral;
He’s not coming tomorrow. , more emphatic;
There is only one form of the spoken negative in the first person singular. This leads to the forms of the first person tag questions, I’m not coming, am I? , I’m coming, aren’t I?
Verbs describing a state or an involuntary sensation (the so-called stative verbs), do not usually make a future in this way. When this happens, it suggests a deliberate act or pretence:
To be: I’m being Cinderella in the play tomorrow.
To have: I’m having a new dress. Colloquial English and American English prefers I’m getting to I’m having for possession.
Verbs describing involuntary sensation (smell, hear, taste) almost never form a future in this way. Yet, some stative verbs also have dynamic meanings, where the action is under voluntary control and it is therefore susceptible to future planning. These uses commonly constitute a “diary” future”:
I’m seeing the doctor in the morning.
The judge is hearing his case in the afternoon.
The future markers used with this tense are:
All dates and time expressions, such as tonight, tomorrow, on Friday, this afternoon, next week, in January, on 10th May, at 2 o’clock, in 2020 ( or any year), on Christmas/Easter day and others;
Generalized future markers, such as: soon, later on, in a little while, sometime etc.
The “going to” future may contract with verb of coming/going and motion generally, to avoid constructions such as I’m going to go or I’m going to come.
Thus, we can say: I’m going shopping, instead of I’m going to go shopping.
Spelling:
Verbs ending in –e drop e before ing: I drive- I’m driving, I dance- I’m dancing;
Verbs ending in a short vowel followed by a single consonant usually double the consonant before ing: I sit- I’m sitting, I run – I’m running;
Verbs ending in y obey the rule adding ing, but verbs ending in ie commonly change to y before ing: I play – I’m playing, I try –I’m trying;
I lie – I’m lying, I tie- I’m tying.
Stress on the auxiliary or on the negative will produce an emphatic form of the tense;
Pronunciation: a) the contracted form of he’s is sometimes heard as his, it’s as is;
b) the last sound of the contracted auxiliary is lost when the following verb begins with the same consonant, which may cause problems for beginners: I’m mending/ I’m ending; I’m meeting/ I’m eating; He’s sleeping/He’s leaping etc.
Learner difficulties regarding form, spelling and pronunciation:
Students sometimes make diary future with stative verbs, especially with verbs of sensation: We’re knowing her decision next week.
Students make spelling mistakes, such as comeing, runing etc.
The two variants of the spoken negative may cause problems if teachers are unaware of this. Beginners may be taught one version and hear the teacher using the other one in classroom interaction, which may cause confusion.
The tag/ negative question forms, I am working tomorrow, aren’t I? Aren’t I working? may appear complicated. Am I not is used in writing and less in conversations.
Learner difficulties regarding meaning and function:
Students are often unwilling to use the diary future and they use “will” instead, because they are usually taught the will form at the beginning. For example, if the question is: What are you doing tomorrow?, they are more likely to answer: I will see the doctor. Seeing a doctor implies a plan, so “will’ is not suitable, although it is grammatically correct.
Markers can create problems: for example, in British English presently means in a moment, not at present and it is therefore a future marker. In some American English contexts it means at present and it is equivalent to the English currently.
Actually is a false friend and it means in fact so it is not a time marker. This causes problems for some students who assume it is equivalent to now.
Future and habitual uses:
“Both non-progressive and progressive forms can be used to refer to action at the time indicated, to action in the future or to habitual (or repeated) action. But the precise conditions under which they may have these uses are not entirely simple and have created some confusion.” Frank Robert Palmer, p.56, The English Verb, Longman, 1988.
There is a definite contrast between present continuous, future simple and habitual/repeated activity in:
He's feeding the pigs at the moment.
He's feeding the pigs tomorrow.
Whenever I call him, he's feeding the pigs.
In the absence of the adverbials, He's feeding the pigs would normally be interpreted in the present sense. Thus, the presence of an adverbial is necessary to clarify the meaning.
Will/Shall Future
Will/shall future (shall is rarely used in American English) is used when we are simply giving information about the future or predicting future events which are not already decided or on the way.
Affirmative forms- Full form (short form):
I /we will/shall (‘ll) leave
You/he/she/it/we/they will (‘ll) leave
Negative forms:
I/we will not/shall not (won’t/shan’t) leave
You/he/she/it/we/they will not (won’t) leave
Interrogative forms:
Will you leave? (neutral)
Shall I leave? → This question expresses willingness to undertake an obligation; makes a suggestion; asks for advice.
Won’t you have a cup of tea? → It can express an invitation.
In wh-questions: Who will they travel there with?
When will she leave?
How will you get there?
In spoken English, the question words often combine with will to make reduced forms: who’ll, what’ll, where’ll, when’ll, how’ll etc. They sound like contractions but are not used that way in written English.
Example: “When I'm alone
with only dreams of you
that won't come true
what'll I do?”(lyrics, singer Nat King Cole)
When’ll we meet again?
In affirmative and negative statements “the verb is usually contracted both in written and spoken English. If the verb is in its full form, the meaning is much more emphatic.” (Jim Scrivener, Teaching English Grammar, 2010, Macmillan)
Example: I will buy a new bike next month.
Tom will not find a new job.
Will/shall can be used in the following situations:
As a response to a comment or a suggestion:
I’m hungry.→ Shall I bring you a sandwich?
How can you help me? →I will call my lawyer.
Prediction (especially with if or when) and if it is made based on knowledge, guesswork, judgement:
What will she do when she gets the job in Bucharest? → She will move there.
What will happen if it rains? → We will postpone our picnic.
They will arrive soon.
I wonder what the world will look like in 20 years time.
Expressing determination:
The teacher thinks you will not pass the examination. → He is wrong. I will pass.
Go to bed now! → I won’t/shan’t! (refusal to a command)
Expressing commitment:
In public declarations of policy (formal situations): What do you intend to do? → We will/shall reduce taxes.
Threats: I will punish you.
Promises: I will buy you a new tablet.
Expressing refusal:
I won’t call her again.
He won’t come even if I’ve begged him to.
Logical deduction:
Who’s the boy next to Jane? → That will be her cousin.
Why are the Johnsons so quiet?→ They’ll be on holiday.
Capability/potential:
What will this car do? → It will do 15 km to the litre.
Persistence (especially habits):
What annoys you? →She will tell those silly jokes.
Why does she make you upset? →She will keep mentioning my past mistakes.
To ask for advice and instructions:
Shall I wear the short skirt or the long one?
Shall I wash the dishes?
To foretell future actions or to express hopes, expectations, fears, offers, promises
Key words: I'm sure, I believe, I expect, I hope, I suppose, I think, I'm afraid, I wonder, I fear, I worry, I promise, I guess, I wonder, I reckon (informal), I bet (informal) or perhaps, possibly, surely, probably, maybe
I’m sure he’ll be here in a moment.
I hope (that) the weather will be nice for a trip.
I guess she won’t take part in the competition.
I promise I’ll give you the money back.
I bet nobody will come to her party.
Be Going To can be used with these words in informal situations.
For decisions made at the time of speaking/ spontaneous reactions:
I will carry the bags to the car.
What a nice umbrella! I’ll buy it!
To request something from someone:
Will you post this letter for me, please?
For indirect requests:
I’ll need your name and address to fill in the form.
For ‘certain’ future events:
The film will be released on 2nd December.
The interviews will be held next Friday.
To describe present habits and behaviour whether it is good or not:
“Sheep will eat grass blocks (turning them into dirt) and grass (destroying them). They will retain their wool color if it has been dyed before it was sheared.” (Minecraft, describing sheep behaviour)
The adverbs: certainly, (almost) definitely, possibly and probably are often used with will to make predictions:
The earth will probably be covered in rubbish in a few years.
We will definitely drive flying cars in the future.
We probably won’t use laptops anymore the future.
These adverbs show whether we think something is more or less certain to happen.
The speaker is 100% it will happen – certainly/definitely
The speaker is 90% certain it will happen – almost definitely
The speaker is more than 50 % certain it will happen – probably
The speaker is less than 50% certain it will happen – possibly
NOTES:
Shall is found especially in legal, biblical and archaic texts, when the speaker is expressing authority over the listener. For example: You shall not go. I will not allow you.
It is also used when the speaker expects the listener to be bound by the action:
I shall be in front of the hall at 2 o’clock. (this is my decision and I expect you to meet you there)
In the negative won’t is used to express unwillingness but does not always refer to the future: She won’t listen to me even if I am her brother.
Will is used with you to: -make requests: Will you follow me, please.
-give orders: Will you bring that coat!
-give formal invitations: Will you want some more coffee?/ Won’t you have some more tea?
– will and shall cannot be used with other modals;
– Shall is not normally used in American English.
– Will/Shall is also used in the main (result) clause of future conditional:
If you go there, you’ll be sorry.
If she doesn’t come, I’ll be very disappointed.
Shall/shan’t are found with other subjects (it, she, she, they, you) in older literary styles in British English:
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.”( For the Fallen, By Laurence Binyon)
Shall is used instead of will to show determination, as stated in the following famous speech of Winston Churchill back in 1940: “We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
The future tense is used for the expression of general predictability in scientific, quasi-scientific, and proverbial statements:
Oil will float on water. Faith will move mountains.
Sugar will dissolve in water. Flattery will get you nowhere.
Pigs will eat anything. Love will find a way.
Accidents will happen. Even a worm will turn.
Truth will come out. Speak of the devil and he will/shall appear.
Boys will be boys. Give him an inch and he will take a mile.
By using future tense sentences like these the speaker indicates that a certain event is predictable which is generally characteristic of the subject noun phrase referent. Semantically they are closely related to sentences in the present tense.
Learner difficulties regarding form, spelling and pronunciation:
Will and shall used before modals *I will can come* etc.;
Sometimes will is seen as the future of To be, so some beginners say *I will happy*;
Many learners have difficulty with the short i sound and say /wi:l/
Learner difficulties regarding meaning and function:
Many students use will for any future activity. For example: I will meet Maria at 2 o’clock to work on the project. instead of I’m meeting Maria at 2 o’clock to work on the project.
Students may use can instead of will to show logical deduction: *That can be our new school bus driver.*
Students use present simple instead of will for instant decisions:
*I clean the blackboard, teacher.*, instead of I will clean the blackboard, teacher.
The future simple is also present in newspapers and in the news on TV, when the presenters make announcements about weather forecasts or in formal situations; otherwise it is the least used tense in mass media.
Be Going To
Be Going To makes the following form: the present continuous tense of the verb to go followed by to and the main verb: am/are/is going to + verb
I’m going to sell my boat.
She is not going to come with us.
Are you going to travel by plane?
Affirmative forms:
I’m (am) going to catch the bus.
You/We/They’re (are) going to buy Christmas presents.
She/He/It’s (is) going to play in the garden.
Negative forms:
I’m not (am not) going to catch the bus.
You/We/They’re not (aren’t/ are not) going to buy Christmas presents.
She/He/It’s not (isn’t/ is not) going to play in the garden.
Question forms:
Am I going to catch the bus?
Are you/we/they going to buy Christmas presents?
Is she/he/it going to play in the garden?
Short answers: Yes, I am. No, I’m not (am not).
Yes, you/we/they are. No, you/we/they aren’t (are not).
Yes, she/he/it is. No, she/he/it isn’t (is not).
Wh- questions:
Who is / Who’s going to come with you?
What is /What’s the government going to do about the new tax?
When are you going to leave?
This structure (be going to) refers to a future action or event that grows out of current plans or current causes.
I’m going to learn Japanese.
We’re going to visit France next summer.
According to Jim Scrivener (Teaching English, Macmillan, 2010), it is used to express “ future events that have previously been thought about, mentioned, planned or arranged and imminent events based on evidence in the present”.
He also points out that be going to can be used “for all-purpose future and it is suitable for most (but not all) sentences that have a future meaning. In this respect, it is a more natural option for students who always use will for everything futureish”.
As it was mentioned above, it is used to predict future events, based on evidence/proofs/logical consequence:
This lady is going to have a baby. (She is pregnant.)
It is going to rain. (There are clouds on the sky.)
He is going to jump into the pool. (He’s on the edge of the pool)
Look out! The tree is going to fall! (Someone has cut it.)
Be going to is also used when we give commands or state that something is compulsory:
For example, a parent tells his child: You’re going to put all your toys away. The room is a mess.
Notes:
When the main verb is go, the tense is sometimes abbreviated to avoid repetition:
I’m going to go fishing this afternoon.
I’m going fishing this afternoon.
There are two short forms of the negative form, except in the first person singular.
You’re not tends to be more emphatic than you aren’t, but the forms are usually interchangeable.
Learner difficulties regarding form, spelling and pronunciation:
Students may use the short form *I amn’t* I aren’t* instead of the correct ones;
They are reluctant to say I’m going to go or I’m going to come even though they are grammatically correct.
According to Jim Scrivener in Teaching English Grammar, Macmillan, 2010:197, Be Going To is a structure whose pronunciation often puzzles students. By looking at the spelling they will expect to be pronounced /gəʊɪɳ tu:/ or /gəʊɪɳ tə/, and even though this is totally acceptable, the native speakers say /gəntə/ or /gənə/. He also mentions that many people think this is incorrect but native speakers do not consider it so, and they suggest that it should be taught to students for listening and recognition purposes. The initial pronoun may be pronounced very weakly, which might make it difficult for students to understand what is being said. That is why teaching the spoken pronunciation is equally as important as the academic one.
For example,
I’m going to do it. /m gənə du:wɪt/
He’s going to do it. /z gənə du:wɪt/
In all types of American English, except formal speaking, the pronunciation of “going to” is “gonna” (usually pronounced /gənə/):
“So I'm gonna love you like I'm gonna lose you
And I'm gonna hold you like I'm saying goodbye” (song lyrics, Like I’m Gonna Lose you, Meghan Trainor)
I think it is worth mentioning this aspect as teenagers are fond of music and they listen to English songs, where this form is normally used instead of going to.
Learner difficulties regarding meaning and function:
Students usually use will for all sentences that refer to the future and they do not use be going to when this form would be appropriate;
Students tend to translate be going to as the verb go into Romanian;
They omit the main verb after be going to: *I’m going to tennis.*;
Lower level students omit be or –ing.
The future continuous/progressive
We form the future continuous with: will (‘ll) + be+ present participle (-ing form).
Examples: We will (‘ll) be finishing our homework at about six o’clock
She’ll be working in the new school next week.
This tense can be used to say that something will be in progress at a particular time (later than now). It is used for predicting or guessing about future events (which are fixed or decided) and the way we project ourselves into the future.
Affirmative forms:
I/we will/shall (‘ll) be working
You/ she/he/it/we/they will (‘ll) be working
Negative forms:
I/we will/shall not (won’t/shan’t) be working
You/ she/he/it/we/they will not (won’t) be working
Question forms:
Will I/we be working?
Will you/she/he/it/we/they be working?
Future continuous is often used with: a time phrase (next Friday, all summer, in the afternoon etc), at + time (at 3 o’clock, at noon), when/while + event (when mom comes, while she is cooking etc).
Examples: They’ll be travelling to Spain next week.
She’ll be having music lessons at 4 o’clock.
I’ll be watching my favourite soap while he is working.
NOTES:
Shall is used in formal British English;
In speech, will is always contracted, I’ll be meeting them at 10 o’clock.
If stressed, will produces an emphatic meaning: We will be having a party on my birthday.
Stative verbs do not usually have a continuous form. Yet, we can say:
I think you’ll be feeling sick if you don’t eat anything.
In the interrogative form, the future continuous can be used to ask politely for information about the future. Will you be coming with us? Will they be buying the drinks?
If it is combined with still, the future continuous refers to events that are already happening now and that we expect to continue some time into the future.
She will be still cooking for the party at 12 o’clock.
Instead of will, we can use be going to, but this form is more rarely used:
My friends are going to be driving at this time tomorrow.
It is not used in the passive voice.
Learner difficulties regarding form, spelling and pronunciation:
Students may omit one of auxiliary verbs used to form the tense (will or be):
*I be riding my bike at 2 o’clock*.
*I will reading a book when she arrives.*
Students may use future continuous with stative verbs:
*I’ll be being stressed during my chemistry test.*
Learner difficulties regarding meaning and function:
Students fail to understand the difference between future simple and future continuous, thus they cannot use it correctly in their own sentences;
Future continuous can be represented using time lines for ongoing processes:
Now Future – tomorrow
8 am at 4 pm
I will be watching my favourite soap at 4 pm tomorrow.
(My soap starts at 3.30 pm and finishes at 4.30 pm)
The action is expected to last a certain period of time, which can be relevant to the listener (that is where you can find me).
It can be imagined (and practiced) as a ‘family group’, where everyone will be doing something at a certain time in the future.
Examples: When I come back from school, grandmother will be making an apple pie, grandpa will be watering the garden and my little sister will be playing with her dolls.
The Future Perfect Simple
We form future perfect simple with will/shall + have + past participle:
I will have done my homework by midnight.
Affirmative forms:
I/we will/shall (‘ll) have done
You/ she/he/it/we/they will (‘ll) have done
Negative forms:
I/we will/shall not (won’t/shan’t) have done
You/ she/he/it/we/they will not (won’t) have done
Question forms:
Will you have done?
We use this tense to say that something will have been done, completed or achieved by a certain time in the future.
According to Jim Scrivener in Teaching English Grammar (Macmillan Education, 2010:210), future perfect simple involves three key concepts:
a) looking into the future to a certain time (midnight).
b) looking backwards from that future time towards the present.
c) noticing what actions will be done (and possibly completed) in the period between that future time and the present.
It is important to note that this tense is much less used than the others.
Lexical time words/phrases are very important in indicating that a sentence refers to the future and the future perfect simple is usually signaled by a time expressions that starts with by (by the time, by then):
By the end of the year I will have read all the books in my collection.
The film will have already finished by the time we arrive at the cinema.
By the time I finish high school, I will have made up my mind regarding university.
Future perfect simple can be used with:
Just: She will have just finished cooking when you arrive.
Already: She will have already left by then.
Yet – in negatives and questions: She won’t have arrived yet when you get there. / Will the children have finished cleaning their room yet?
Still: He still won’t have arrived when you get there.
NOTES:
Have is usually reduced to ‘ve in speech, although it is not written in this form:
I’ll’ve written the letter by the time she gets here.
They won’t’ve finished the job by then.
Stress on the will/shall/won’/shan’t produces an emphatic form of the tense.
It is not used in American English. Since they are more likely to say: "I'm done" or "I'm through", they might say:
I will be finished this book by 10 o’clock.
She will be through with the cooking by the time the guests arrive.
In spoken English, the auxiliary verbs for the future perfect tense are usually pronounced in a reduced form. In affirmative sentences, will have is /wɪləv/ or /wɪlə/, whereas in negative sentences, won’t have is pronounced /wontəv/ or /wontə/.
This tense is usually taught at an advanced level
Learner difficulties regarding form, spelling and pronunciation:
Students do not make the correct form, omitting one of the auxiliary verbs;
shall may be used with the second or the third persons.
Learner difficulties regarding meaning and function:
Unless it is required in exercises, the students avoid using it in their sentences;
Students have problems with word order when they use yet, still, already, yet
Future perfect simple can be represented on time lines:
Now Future (By..)
2019 2030
By 2030 I will have finished school.
By 2030 I will have got a job.
By 2030 I will have bought a car.
These utterances are deductions/suppositions of the speaker.
The Future Perfect Continuous
We form future perfect continuous with: will + have + been+ present participle of the main verb (base + ing).
Next March I will have been working in the school for ten years.
By 2020 we will have been living here for twenty years.
They will have been chatting for ten hours by noon.
Affirmative forms:
I/we will/shall (‘ll) have been working
You/ she/he/it/we/they will (‘ll) have been working
Negative forms:
I/we will/shall not (won’t/shan’t) have been working
You/ she/he/it/we/they will not (won’t) have been working
Question forms:
Will you have been working?
The future perfect continuous is used to denote a future action that starts before a certain moment of time in the future or goes up to it. The situations which require it rarely arise in spoken English, so it is seldom used. It is normally used with a time expression.
Non-action verbs such as to be, to seem, or to know and others are not usually suited to the future perfect continuous tense. Instead, these verbs take the future perfect tense, which is formed with will + have + past participle, as exemplified above.
This continuous form can be used to emphasize the continuity of a future achievement.
The Future perfect continuous is not usually used in the passive.
This tense is used to project or imagine ourselves forward in time and then look back. It refers to events or actions in a time between now and some future time, that might be unfinished.
Examples:
By 2021 I will have been living here for fifty years.
By the time I finish this book, I will have been reading it for three hours.
Next month I will have been working here for two years.
If represented on a time line:
Now Future (4 o’clock)
I will have been doing my homework for two hours by four o'clock. (I started at 2 o’clock)
Learner difficulties regarding form, spelling and pronunciation:
Have is commonly reduced to ‘ve in speech, but it is not written in this way and it often confuses students who perceive it as of;
the spelling of the –ing form may create problems;
students sometimes omit one of the auxiliary verbs.
Learner difficulties regarding meaning and function:
Unless it is required in exercises, the students avoid using it in their own sentences;
Students tend to use present continuous instead of this tense;
*By midnight I am working on the project for 12 hours.*
The future-in-the-past
Sometimes we want to refer to events which were meant or planned to take place in the past (the future-in-the-past). We use was/were going to, was/were to and was/were due to. These forms are used for:
events we could not foresee: I didn’t know I was to meet him again the next day.
We were to arrive at 10 o’clock but there was a traffic jam.
events which were interrupted:
They were going to fall asleep, when they heard the thief in the kitchen.
I was going to phone him but I completely forgot.
In story-telling we also use would for ‘destiny’:
The princess would finally find her prince.
She didn’t realize she would become so famous.
Would is also used to talk about offers and promises:
He said he would not give up. She told me she would help me with the project.
Would and was/were going to can be used when talking about predictions:
I knew the story wouldn’t be a great success.
Like all the other future forms, future in the past cannot be used with time expressions, such as before, after, as soon as, in case, by the time, when, while and others. In such situations past simple must be used.
Examples: She told me when he would come, we would talk about that. – wrong
She told me when he came, we would talk about that – right
Other means of expressing Future Time – be to, be about to, be due to, be on the edge/ brink/ point/ verge of, be likely to, be fixing to, be bound to
BE TO + infinitive is made up of two elements: the appropriate verb form of “be” (am, are, is) and the infinitive of the main verb.
Examples: She is to travel to Bucharest tomorrow.
She is not to travel to Bucharest tomorrow.
Is she to travel to Bucharest tomorrow?
BE TO + infinitive– is used in the following situations:
For official arrangements:
The Pope is to visit Romania next week.
The mayor is to meet the protesters tomorrow afternoon.
For official orders:
All the students are to take a final examination at the end of the month.
To ask for advice:
What am I to do? (What should I do?)
Prohibition (in the negative):
You are not to behave like that again!
A possible aim when saying what should be done to reach it:
If you are to win the competition, you must work really hard.
Be to is quite rare in spoken English and it mainly occurs in news reports, spy stories and in formal contexts.
According to Martin Hewings (Advanced Grammar in Use, Cambridge University Press, 2005:24), we can use be to + infinitive in if-clauses to say that something must happen first ( in the main clause) before something else can happen (in the if-clause) :
If the human race is to survive, we must look at the environmental problems now.
The law needs to be revised if justice is to be done (passive form).
BE ABOUT TO- is used to show that something is planned for the near future:
I am about to get my driving license.
She is about to get married.
Hurry up! The concert is about to begin!
This structure is often used with just, to show the immediacy of the action: We’re just about to go for a walk. Would you like to join us? It is often used in conversations.
George Davidson, in Verbs and Tenses, Learners Publishing, 2003:223, states that “In informal English, not be about to is used to express what someone intends not to do or what they will now allow to happen”:
I’m not about to tell her how much money I have earned this month.
She is not about to let her brother talk to their parents about her problems.
BE DUE TO – is used to talk about things that are expected or planned to happen at a certain time. It is often use with a time expression:
The school bus is due to arrive at 12 o’clock.
Madonna is due to perform here at noon.
The German lesson is due to start at 8.30.
BE ON THE EDGE / BRINK/ POINT / VERGE OF (doing) something
The expressions be on the edge / brink/ point / verge of (doing) something refer to actions that happen in the near future and have a meaning similar to be about to:
I’m on the edge of calling my lawyer.
She is on the point of phoning him.
The two men are on the verge of a fight.
BE LIKELY + to-infinitive and it is likely + that-clause are used for future events which are probably going to happen:
Men are more likely to become addicted to gambling compared to women.
It is likely that he will be in Portugal next year.
BE FIXING TO- it is used in spoken American English in some parts of the USA and it means to prepare/ get ready to do something:
"I think I’m fixing to die rag” (song lyrics, Country Joe McDonald, 1968)
I’m fixing to go to the pet store. Do you want to come?
We use some verbs with a to-infinitive form to talk about intentions. Such verbs are: want, agree, promise, propose, resolve, aim, expect, hope, intend, plan, and undertake:
Do you want me to cook tonight?
I’m planning to travel to Rome next year.
Some people use the expression be looking + to-infinitive when planning a course action:
The company is looking to employ more people in the future.
BE BOUND TO
The semi-modal BE BOUND TO is used for future reference:
Sue is bound to arrive there tomorrow.
Sue is bound to come next Thursday.
BE BOUND TO is not restricted to future reference. It could be used instead of must.
“There is one class of the 'futurity' verbs. These all refer to actions contemplated for the future – planned, foreseen, ordered, etc.
Formally they are distinguished by the possibility of the occurrence of adverbials of future time in the subordinate clause:
I hope to come tomorrow.
I want John to come tomorrow.
I persuaded John to come tomorrow.
I promised John to come tomorrow.”
Frank Robert Palme, The English Verb, Longman, 1988, p.187
These verbs can be divided into the following groups:
Wish, desire – I wish to meet Kathy.
I wish Mary to meet Kathy.
I wish Kathy to be met by Mary.
Instead of “wish” we can use “would like “or “should like”, I would like to meet Kathy.
Decide – She decided to go there next week.
Semantically the verbs in this group refer to plans, hopes, wishes for future activity by the subject of the main clause. These verbs are: ache, aim, aspire, choose, decide, decline, determine, elect, fear, hesitate, hope, long, look, plot, prepare, refuse, swear etc.
Promise – He promised to phone her tomorrow.
Persuade – I persuaded her to write the letter.
There are other verbs that imply asking someone to act, such as advise, appoint, challenge, assist, bring, compel, coerce, commission, direct, drive, entice, force, invite, lead, leave, oblige, order, press, request, teach, tell, trouble, urge, warn, worry.
Plan, propose can be used with the –ing form and the to-infinitive with a little or no difference in meaning.
I plan leaving this place next month.
I plan to leave this place next month.
Expect – I expect to see him this afternoon.
Idiomatic phrases when talking about future
It will/ could happen any minute/ day now- this expression is used when something is surely going to happen but we don’t know exactly when.
She passed the interview so she will get the job any day now.
It’s just/right around the corner – which means something will happen soon and we know when.
Easter is just around the corner.
I’m counting the days until….– it means I am eagerly waiting for something nice.
I’m counting the days until my summer holiday!
Time will tell – which means that something is not certain now but it will become clearer in the future.
Their relationship seems odd. Time will tell if it lasts.
I’ll do it right away/ I’ll get right on it – it means that I will do something urgent as soon as I can
It will / won’t happen in our lifetime. – it means that something will/won’t happen in the next 50-60 years.
I think teachers won’t be replaced by robots in our lifetime.
Sooner or later – it means that something will eventually happen in the future but we don’t know when.
She will move out sooner or later.
It is a sign of things to come- it means that something will happen in the future
The hot weather has been just a sign of things to come.
For the time being – it means that at the moment things will be the same but they might change in the future.
I’d like to live in this flat for the time being.
Someone’s future looks bright – it means that someone has a promising future ahead.
His future looks bright as he has just received the scholarship.
To save for a rainy day – this means that we have to save money for something unexpected in the future.
Grandma is saving for a rainy day.
Tomorrow is another day – which means that there is another opportunity to do something better in the future.
Don’t worry about the interview, tomorrow is another day.
Burn the bridges behind you – it means treating people badly so they will not help you in the future.
You shouldn’t have burnt the bridges behind you; you still need them to get your money.
According to Patricia Wilcox Peterson, in Changing times, Changing tenses, 1989:2, ‘the English tense system is quite complicated, but the most common problem is not how to form tenses. The mechanical manipulation of verbs is easily learned through a few rules and formulas. The biggest problem, is deciding which tense to use in a given situation. In order to choose correctly end easily, the student must understand the meaning of the tense itself, its time picture or time line. He must know what kinds of activities and states can be described by certain verbs. Certain groups of verbs are limited in their usage, and this can present problems, too. Finally, the student needs to be able to choose accurate time markers to clarify the time picture.’
Thus, our students can be taught rules many times, repeatedly, and the students learn them by heart, but the real challenge for a teacher is to make them understand the context and the usages and then to make them use them in their own utterances in real situations.
Activities and Lesson Plans for the Intermediate Level for teaching futurity
Note: the activities and the examples that I am going to describe have been done by myself and practiced by students during my intermediate classes in the recent years (unless they are marked as belonging to a different author). I have come up with them because the handbooks a teacher usually uses in a class do not contain the practice the students need to acquire/ use certain structures and are not connected to their interests and the time we live in. Thus, I consider that these activities are more personal and closer to their likes and age. In addition, the activities do not require sophisticated materials; a blackboard (apart from a very engaged teacher) and a CD player/phone (for the audio material) are sometimes enough to create and imagine a certain setting/atmosphere in order to make learning easier and more enjoyable. I have also found out that practicing each future structure separately before comparing and mixing them leads to better results.
TEACHING TIMETABLE FUTURE (present simple with future time marker)- Activities
At the beginning of their English lessons, students learn that present simple is used to express daily activities/ routines and general truths (I listen to music every day. I do my homework every afternoon. I like ice-cream.). Once they get at the intermediary level, they are ready to learn that this tense is also used for timetables or scheduled (usually public) events, even if it is obvious in the context that we talk about future. This aspect often confuses them, that is why more practice and explanation is required.
Activity – Events on a calendar (30 minutes). This activity focuses on speaking and writing, using the present simple tense:
The teacher asks the students to make up sentences about “Saptamana Altfel” (“The Different Week”), which takes place in April every school year. They are given the following table and are asked to make up sentences about all the grades and their planned activities and eventually suggest an activity for Friday:
This can be a group activity, each group is given a grade and talk about its scheduled activities.
Examples: On Monday at 9 o’clock, the 5th graders watch English and French films.
On Tuesday at 8 o’clock, the 5th graders ride their bikes to the dam.
On Wednesday at 10 o’clock, the 5th graders have/attend a story telling workshop.
TEACHING DIARY FUTURE (present continuous with future time marker)
Students normally know that present continuous is used to talk about something happening at the moment of speaking, but they should know, at the intermediate level, that this tense is also used to describe certain future personal arrangements and plans that are fixed now, especially when we give the time, date and/or place.
Activity 1 (15 minutes)- Procedure: The teacher asks the students to write some sentences about your plans for the coming week:
On Monday I am watching my favourite soap on TV.
On Tuesday I am visiting grandma.
On Wednesday I am having lunch with my family at the restaurant.
…On Sunday I am going shopping because I need new shoes.
As variation, a student can mime the activities and the others guess what activities he/she is doing the coming week.
Activity 2 (15 minutes) – The students look at Robert’s diary for next week and make sentences using present continuous:
Monday – study for the history test
Tuesday – have the violin lesson
Wednesday – help grandfather in the garden
Thursday – do the biology project
Friday – go shopping
Saturday – visit his aunt
Sunday – go to his friend’s party
Answers: On Monday he is studying for the history test. On Tuesday he is having the violin lesson. On Wednesday He is helping grandfather in the garden. On Thursday he is doing the biology project. On Friday he is going shopping. On Saturday he is visiting his aunt. On Sunday he is going to his friend’s party.
Activity 3 (20 minutes) – This activity can be used when teaching present continuous used for sure plans starting from present simple used for routines.
The students are given a text with Ann’s daily routine. They can even choose a person from the class and write about her/his true daily routine. It is always better and the students learn more easily if they can relate to that person.
Example: Ann gets up at 6 o’clock in the morning and then she goes jogging on the street for half an hour. After that she has a light breakfast at 7 o’clock. She heads for school at 8 o’clock. She always meets her friends at the bus stop and they take the bus together. She starts classes at 9 o’clock and finishes them at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. After school she goes home. She does her homework at 5 o’clock and has supper at 7 o’clock. At 10 o’clock she goes to bed.
The students are asked to write about Ann’s plans for tomorrow using the present continuous tense.
Ann is getting up at 6 o’clock in the morning and then she is going jogging on the street for half an hour. After that she is having a light breakfast at 7 o’clock. She is heading for school at 8 o’clock. She is meeting her friends at the bus stop and they are taking the bus together. She is starting classes at 9 o’clock and is finishing them at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. After school she is going home. She is doing her homework at 5 o’clock and having supper at 7 o’clock. At 10 o’clock she is going to bed.
TEACHING WILL/SHALL FUTURE
This tense does not create confusion and it is usually easily and quickly understood and used correctly. However, there are some problems in using it correctly in questions and negative statements.
Activity 1 (15 minutes): This activity focuses on speaking about future.
Procedure: the teacher asks the students to act as a fortune teller. When requested to read in their crystal ball, they should mention: career/ family/ friends/ pets/ house/ city/ money/ travelling/ appearance/ hobby etc.
Examples: You will be an astronaut. You will have two kids. You will have ten cats and ten dogs. You will travel to Mars.
Activity 2 (30 minutes): Fill in the blank with the correct future form of the verb in brackets:
Procedure: First, the teacher can find pictures to illustrate the song the students are going to listen to they should try to predict what the song is about. Then, the teacher gives sheets with the lyrics of the song “Fortune teller”, sang by Maroon 5 and asks students to listen to the song and fill in the missing words while listening. As a variant, the teacher can write different words incorrectly and the students have to correct them.
"Fortune Teller" by MAROON 5
I'm not a fortune teller,
I ________________(bring) news of what tomorrow brings,
I ________________(leave) that up to you,
I'm not a fortune teller,
Don't have a crystal ball,
I can't predict the future,
Can't see nothing at all.
It doesn't mean I'm afraid
Of all the things that you say,
But I just think we should stay
Stuck in the moment today,
And as the seasons roll by
No matter how hard I try,
Summer _________________(end) and the leaves _______________(turn) again.
I don't know why you're acting like this,
I don't know why you had to do it again,
Why'd you have to go and ruin the night?
Don't worry about tomorrow's mess.
I ____________never (know),
How the future ____________(go)?
I don't know what to tell you,
I'm not a fortune teller.
I ______________never (change),
But I want you to stay,
I don't know what to tell you,
I'm not a fortune teller.
I don't like watching TV,
I don't know what it all means,
And your American dream,
Baby, it just isn't me,
I know that what I'm thinking,
May not be on your mind,
I know the song I'm singing
Is not your favorite kind.
It doesn't mean I'm afraid
Of all the things that you say.
But I just think we should stay
Stuck in the moment today,,
And as the seasons roll by
No matter how hard I try,
Summer ______________(end) and the leaves____________ (turn) again.
To check understanding of the lyrics, the teacher can ask following-up questions:
Who is the singer singing this song to?
How does the singer feel? (Confused – happy – sad – overwhelmed – excited…)
Why does he feel that way?
Is he worried about the present or the future?
Who is worried about the future? Why?
Songs can be used in the English class, as music interests most of the students and the teacher can choose either very new songs or older songs, enriching the students’cultural knowledge as well.
Activity 3 (20 minutes)- Penny Ur, in Grammar Practice Activities- A Practical Guide for Teachers, Cambridge University Press, page 117, suggests the following activity for teaching Will to describe future events.
“Materials needed: A story, presented initially to the students without its ending, or with an uncertain or ambivalent ending. Such stories are most conveniently given as individual written copies, but may also be read aloud or improvised orally from skeleton notes.
Procedure: present the incomplete story and invite suggestions as to how it will continue. The students may brainstorm simple one-sentence suggestions, or discuss each idea as it is proposed, accepting, rejecting or amending in order to work out an agreed sequence of events.”
Example: One day a farmer finds a baby donkey on his farm…What will he do with it?
Possible answers: He will give it a shelter./ He will take it on his farm. / He will raise it./ He will try to find its owner. He will become very fond of it./ He will feed it./ He will ride it./ He will win donkey races. The story can stop with a happy ending or the students can end it in their own way as homework.
Activity 4 – Will- used for weather predictions (15 minutes).
Procedure: the teacher gives the students a map of Romania or Great Britain with weather signs and asks them to look at it and describe what the weather will be like in different cities/parts of the country. The teacher can use real English newspapers, which provide good weather maps.
Example: It will be cloudy in Brasov. The wind will blow in Bucharest. It will be quite warm in the west.
Activity 5- Practice future simple using FUN CARDS designed by Creativo (20-30 minutes)
This deck of cards contains 50 cards with questions and answers on the reverse side. The goal of the game is to get rid of all the cards as quickly as possible. It can be played in groups of six-eight members. One player shuffles and deals each player 7 cards, but it can also be played with smaller number of cards if there are too many players. The cards must be held in such a way that the other players cannot see the symbols on the cards. With the rest of the cards, make the draw pile. The cards in the pile are placed symbols down. The players must answer the question on the card correctly and match the symbols.
Activity
Activity 6 – Palmistry (20 minutes) – Students work with a partner and “read” each other’s left palms according to these principles:
Life line- if this is long and thick, he/she will have a long, healthy life. If it is broken, you will suffer an illness;
Head line- this shows how smart you are, The longer and thicker it is, the more intelligent you are;
Fate line- this is usually a vague line. It indicates how lucky you will be and how healthy;
Heart line- if this is made up of a lot of lines, it means you will have a lot of relationships;
Number of children- this shows how many children you can expect to have.
Note: this exercise can be used with the picture above in order to avoid personal opinions. The students should be encouraged to be creative, have fun and learn.
Example: You/ He/ She will have a long and healthy life.
Activity 7 (15 minutes) – using future simple for spontaneous decisions. The students are given some statements their friends make and they are asked to suggest a helpful response:
Don’t forget it’s your sister’s birthday on Friday. (Response: I will get/buy her a present.)
Someone is at the door. (I will go there and see who it is.)
I think your dad is doing the washing-up.
The computer doesn’t work.
This homework is so difficult.
I have no idea what “daffodil” means.
I’m starving!
Marta is upset.
My t-shirt is torn.
I can’t cut the cake.
Activity 9 (20 minutes) – personal future. We are all thinking about future. Where will we go? What will we do? Whom will we visit? What high school/university will I attend? The students share their personal goals (a five-year plan, for example) and they can also mention how they will accomplish that goal.
Example: I will go on holiday to Greece.→ My parents will take me with them.
I will go to a high school in Bucharest. → I will study a lot.
Activity 10 (15 minutes) – using will/shall in other ways, apart from predicting the future. This exercise is from Longman English grammar Practice for intermediate learners, L.G. Alexander, Longman, 1998. Match the sentences on the left with the functions on the right:
Activity 11 (15 minutes)- The students are asked to write down some sentences about things that they think people will or won’t do in the future and when that will happen.
Learn by computer at home instead of going to school
Eat food pills
Produce babies in laboratories
Fly to Mars
Live on the Moon
I think that people will not/won’t eat food pills (because they are very fond of the traditional food)
Activity 12 (30 minutes) – Children books can also be a useful resource for practicing future tenses. For example, with the 4th, 5th or 6th graders, the old folk tale “The Little Red Hen” can be used to exemplify the use of future simple and also to teach children the value of personal initiative and team work. Its repetitive vocabulary can also help younger students to reinforce the language and use it in their own sentences. Reading aloud will help students to develop their reading skills and confidence as well. For some shy students, playing roles can be beneficial too. They can also create their own versions of the tale and change the characters of the story.
An extract from the tale: “Little Red Hen found some wheat. She wanted to plant it. Little Red Hen went to the cat, the mouse and the goat. “Help me,” said Little Red Hen. “Not I,” said the cat. “Not I,” said the mouse. “Not I,” said the goat. “I will do it myself,” said Little Red Hen.’… “Who will help me cut the wheat?” said Little Red Hen. “Not I,” said the cat. “Not I,” said the mouse. “Not I,” said the goat. “I will do it myself,” said Little Red Hen. So Little Red Hen cut the wheat.”
English Readers offer a large variety of different level books for children and teenagers and they can successfully be used in small groups. They are often abridged and adapted for English learners and contain a multitude of grammar structures and interesting topics (geography, technology, literature).
Activity 13 (40 minutes)- Another book that can be used when teaching future simple is If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, written by Laura Joffe Numeroff, Harper Collins Publisher, 1997, first published in 1985. This activity will include before reading, while reading and after reading strategies.
Before reading (or listening to the story), the teacher:
States the purpose of reading
Gives a short summary of the text- the story is about a very demanding mouse and a boy who tries to please the mouse by giving it everything he asks for.
Asks children to pay attention to the future structures and sets the task, the students have to try to finish the sentence when the teacher stops reading (or pauses the CD player if they listen to the story). They also have to discover the moral of the story and retell the story.
While reading, the teacher pauses and asks the students to finish the sentences/make predictions. The teacher can also explain some unknown words and reinforces the cause and the effect.
Example: If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for….another one/ water etc.
After reading, the teacher will summarize the future structures and explain the differences. To check understanding, the students receive a worksheet with true/false sentences and they have to circle the correct choice. They give a summary of the story, which helps the children improve their memory and are also encouraged to talk about the moral/ meaning of the story and how they can relate to the story (critical thinking).
As a variant, the teacher can copy pictures from the story and have students sequence the events in the story. This can be done by students individually or in groups.
As homework, the students can write a similar story, for example, If You Give a Cow a Doughnut or they can choose the animal and the food.
"If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk.
When you give him the milk, he'll probably ask you for a straw.
When he's finished, he'll ask you for a napkin.
Then he'll want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn't have a milk mustache.
When he looks in the mirror, he might notice his hair needs a trim.
So he'll probably ask for a pair of nail scissors.
When he's finished giving himself a trim, he'll want a broom to sweep it up.
He'll start sweeping.
He might get carried away and sweep every room in the house.
He may even end up washing the floors as well!
When he's done, he'll probably want to take a nap.
You'll have to fix up a little box for him with a blanket and a pillow.
He'll crawl in, make himself comfortable and fluff the pillow a few times.
He'll probably ask you to read him a story.
So you'll read to him from one of your books, and he'll ask to see the pictures.
When he looks at the pictures, he'll get so excited he'll want to sign his name with a pen.
Then he'll want to hang his picture on your refrigerator.
Which means he'll need Scotch tape.
He'll hang up his drawing and stand back to look at it.
Looking at the refrigerator will remind him that he's thirsty.
So… he'll ask for a glass of milk.
And chances are if he asks you for a glass of milk, he's going to want a cookie to go with it."
This site, http://en.childrenslibrary.org/books/index.shtml, offers on line free access to a large collection of published children’s books, and it is a good source of classroom material, as most children are very visual, they enjoy pictured stories. Repetitive structures from books can help students acquire them in a more natural way than when they are taught on the blackboard by the teacher.
Activity 14 (20 minutes) – Find someone who…The students are given the sheet below, they move around the classroom and fill it in with one or more names.
Find someone who….
Then the students share their answers with the rest of the class.
Activity 15 (10 minutes) – “will’ used for promises. A girl leaves home to go to a new high school in the city. What promises will she make to her parents?
Examples: I promise I will study well./ I promise I will call you every day./ I promise I will eat in the morning./ I promise I will not (won’t) play on the computer all the time./ I promise I will do my homework. I promise I will be careful when I cross the street. I promise I won’t get into arguments.
Activity 16 (20-30 minutes) – Open ending stories. The teacher gives a few lines of a story, which can be either read aloud or written on a paper, and the students have to finish it, giving their opinions on the sequence. I think it/she/he will… These stories give the students the opportunity to develop their creativity, they feel more comfortable when there is no wrong/correct answer and all ideas are welcomed and appreciated. In the end, the teacher can stick together more ideas (or let them choose) and come up with a whole story. They can choose a well-known story and change the ending as well.
Example: One day, a boy, called Sam, finds a chest in his garden. He digs it out and doesn’t know what to do next. What will he do next? What do you think?
Possible answers: He will call his dad/mom/sister/friends. He will open it to see what it is inside. He will call 112 and ask for help. He will carry it inside the house. He will keep it away from the neighbours’eyes. After that, he will ……
Activity 17 (20 minutes) – Horoscopes, using will.
The teacher asks the students to make up an 10 line-horoscope for someone in the class on a piece of paper, using will. They should make funny, interesting, nice, optimistic and not too serious predictions. The predictions may be limited to a period of time, for example a week or a month. The papers are collected in a bag and then each student draws a piece of paper randomly and reads it.
Examples:
You will get a ten in your French test. You will travel to Hawaii.
You will buy a new pair of jeans. You will put salt in your tea.
Your cat will have nine kittens. Your sister will wear your t-shirt.
You will get 10 pounds from your uncle. You will meet Brad Pitt at the supermarket.
You will find a fly in your soup. You will find a treasure in your attic.
The students can correct each other’s mistakes if any. The sentences can contain negative structures too.
Activity 18 (20 minutes) – Your future- questionnaire
The students are asked to answer the questions in the questionnaire and check the meaning of the words they do not know in a dictionary if necessary.
Your future- where will you be in twenty years from now? What will your life be like? Will you be happy? What do you think? Make some predictions about your future!
Question 1. Where will you live? Tick one box.
On a farm □
In a village or a quiet town □
In a large city □
In a different country □
Question 2. Where will you work? Tick one box.
In a company □
In a shop □
In a hospital □
None of these □
Question 3. What your partner will look like? Tick one box.
Rich □
Intelligent/Bright □
Handsome/ beautiful □
Kind and friendly □
Question 4. At what age will you do these:
Get a driving license _______
Start work ________
Get married ________
Have children ________
Question 5. Do you think you will ever do any of these things? Tick one box.
Write a book □
Play in a film □
Sing on stage □
Do bungee jumping □
Question 6. How will you be? Tick one box.
Happy □
Famous □
Rich □
Important □
Question 7. Will these things happen in your lifetime? Write yes or no.
We will travel to other planets. _____
Aliens will visit our planet. _____
People will live on Mars. _____
Cars will fly. _____
Question 8. Will we still have these in the future? Write yes or no.
Teachers _________
Shops _________
Newspapers _________
Airplanes _________
Question 9. Do you think you will:
live to be one hundred years old? ________
travel to the moon? ________
live in a modern flat? ________
have three children? ________
Question 10. Will these things happen? Write yes or no.
The climate will change. ______
The scientists will find a cure for cancer. ______
The world will live in peace. ______
Country borders will disappear. ______
The teacher collects the dates, compares, discusses and asks other complementary questions. Sometimes the students might find it hard to choose between the given options so this is a good opportunity for critical thinking and decision making.
The students can have as homework to write a ten line composition with this title, My Future, based on the questionnaire.
Activity 19 (20 minutes) – Superstitions. Even before teaching ‘if conditional’- type 1, teachers can introduce future simple when talking about superstitions. Thus, the teacher asks the students what superstitions they are aware of. Possible answers: the black cat, the broken mirror, the four-leaved clover, opening the umbrella inside, whistling inside, spilling salt, going back once you have headed for somewhere, sneezing on a certain day and others. Then the teacher asks what happens if/ what the consequences are.
Examples: If you see a black cat crossing your path, you will/’ll have bad luck.
If you break a mirror, you will/’ll have seven years of bad luck.
If you find a four-leaved clover, you will/’ll have good luck.
Similarly, the students work on other superstitions and make up sentences, noticing the use of future simple for predictions. As homework, the students can search the internet to find superstitions from around the world.
Activity 20 (20 minutes) – Poetry.
Firstly, the teacher can begin by brainstorming topics related to the future through acrostic poems or pictures. The teacher asks the students to imagine they are living in the year 2100. What is life like? What can they see around them? How far has space and technology advanced?
Flying cars,
Underground trains,
Terrific games,
Unhealthy people,
Rapid computers,
Endangered animals.
The acrostic poems can be simpler, they can fit any letter from a word.
The teacher gives the students a model to fill in, such as: When I see the future
There will be………
There will be ……..
There will be………
But there won’t be …….
Activity 21 (20 minutes) – the teacher asks the students to imagine they are all a carefree family and live in a large house and that they are not very tidy and clean, they are just ordinary kids. They receive a phone from their grumpy and nosy aunt who is coming to visit them in a few hours. They all make instant decisions on what to do in order to be ready to welcome their aunt and avoid criticism. They all have to do different things from each other.
Examples: I will do the washing-up. I will make the beds. I will hoover the rooms. I will make an apple pie. I will clean the bathroom. I will put the clothes in the washing machine. I will dust the furniture. I will water the plants. I will feed the pets. I will clean the bird cage. I will put the toys away. I will take the garbage out. I will fix the curtains. I will put new bed sheets. I will weed the garden. I will pick up a few flowers and put them in a vase. I will wash the windows. I will clean the oven. I will milk the cow. I will clean the pig’s pen.
The students say a new sentence and they can also mention what the previous student has said, like a chain of sentences. The student who can remember all the sentences receives an award.
For example: I will water the plant and he will do the washing-up.
The activity can be combined with future perfect, the teacher asks the students to think about the things they will have done by the time their aunt arrives. For example:
By the time our aunt arrives, we will have done the washing-up.
By the time our aunt arrives, we will have made the beds.
Activity 22 (15 minutes) – Who will marry my daughter?- Role-play. The teacher asks the students to imagine that there is a king who has a daughter and he will marry her to the knight who makes the most appealing promises. The students play the role of the king, the daughter and the knights. They can make funny promises.
Examples: I will cook for you. I will sing you every night. I will buy you jewelry.
Activity 23 (15 minutes) – Promises to Santa Claus. In order to receive many nice presents from Santa, the students have to make must-kept promises.
Example: I will be kind to everyone. I will study more. I won’t play on the tablet all day.
Activity 24 (20 minutes) – Town party. Next year, our town, Fierbinti, is four hundred years old (according to Wikipedia, Fierbinti was born between 1620 and 1650). The students are preparing a plan for this event; they have to organize themselves on how they will bring their contribution to the local event. They have to decide on date, time, music, food, costumes, place, things to buy, advertising, invitations and others. They have to agree upon and come out with the final plan.
Examples: Our town will be four years old next year. I will bring apple pies. I will make a poster about the event. We will buy some paints to make a banner. We will wear traditional costumes. I will play the violin.
They present the final plan to the whole class, explaining what they are going to do.
Examples: We are going to make a banner. I’m going to play the violin.
TEACHING BE GOING TO
Students usually misunderstand this structure, translating it as “se duce să …”,so there should be clear explanation and practice in order to acquire it and use it correctly.
Activity 1 (10 minutes) – shows that something is clearly on the way. For this activity, the teacher provides students with illustrations and asks them to make up sentences about the pictures. The teacher can draw the pictures himself/herself.
Answer: He is going to jump/swim in the swimming pool.
Answer: She is going to get up.
Answer: The children are going to race/run.
Answer: It is going to rain.
Answer: The cat is (not) going to chase/catch/eat the mouse.
Activity 2 (10 minutes): be going to, used for plans and intentions, especially in conversations:
Procedure: the teacher asks the students to make up sentences with what they are going to do after they finish school.
Examples: I am going to do my homework. I am going to help mum to prepare dinner. I am going to play on the computer. I am going to read a book. I am going to play with my sister.
Activity 3 (10 minutes): be going to, New Year’s Resolution
Procedure: the teacher asks the students to write down a few things they want to do the following year, using I’m going to…
Examples: I’m going to buy a new laptop. / I’m going to study more.
Activity 4 (20 minutes): What are you going to do with….? The students sit in a circle and they have a bag full of imaginary things (a pen, a book, a pair of scissors, a mouse, a flower, a phone, a torch, a coin, a sandwich etc). They move the bag from one to the other asking a question, such as: What are you going to do with the pen? Possible answers: I’m going to write with it./ I’m going to do my homework with it. If the student gives a correct answer, she/he takes the bag and asks the next student: What are you going to do with the book? Possible answers: I’m going to read it. /I’m going to take it back to the library. If a student cannot give a correct answer, he/she is out of the game and must leave the circle. It can be played until everyone has had the chance to ask a question or until there is a winner.
Activity 5 (20 minutes): The teacher uses flashcards. Flashcards are a very useful teaching aid, especially with young learners. The easiest way to find good pictures is to do an internet image search. This way, teachers can print, collect pictures and build up a stock of resources they can use many times for various activities and levels. For example, a set of flashcards can illustrate example sentences to introduce positive, negative and question forms of the future simple tense or be going to.
Examples: He isn’t going to eat. He is going to eat.
He is going to drink orange juice. The baby is not going to drink milk.
Flashcards can be used to do drills, a technique that has been used for many years and it is not seen as very creative nowadays. In all drills learners have no or very little choice over what is said, so drills are a form of very controlled practice. There is one correct answer and the main focus is on 'getting it right' (which may discourage some students who do not like being corrected in class). Though, this can help the teachers understand where there are problems with forms. Drilling is generally not the most fun part of teaching or learning English but it is an essential step when learning new material. Varying their approach, teachers can make it more enjoyable and encourage students to participate more.
Examples: He is going to drink milk. He isn’t going to drink milk. Is he going to drink milk? Yes, he is./ No, he isn’t.
Activity 6 (20 minutes)- Let’s talk – class interview about plans. The students are given a worksheet to fill in and they have to walk around the classroom, mingle and ask their classmates questions, according to the following table:
Examples:
Speaker A: What are you going to do tomorrow morning?
Speaker B: I am going to walk to school. / I am going to meet my friends. / I am going to have a geography test.
The students share some of the answers with the rest of the class. This activity may be fun because they like to get out of their desks and interact with each other freely, even though with large classes it could get noisy at times. The teacher will set a certain amount of time for this interview, for example 15 minutes and he/she will make sure all the students ask and answer the questions.
Activity 6 (30 minutes) – Going on a Bear Hunt, written in 1989, is one of the most exciting story because it is funny and has an unexpected ending, which will draw the students ‘attention, especially the younger ones. It may appear simple but it also provides good practice for directions, prepositions of place, basic geography, the modal can, sequencing, descriptive words, and even how to face fear and obstacles. It can be used to teach and learn about be going to, when talking about plans. The students listen and watch the video performed by the author, Michael Roses, and they sing along. After watching and listening to the song, the students are given the verses in a different order and they have to put them in the right order (group work).
Miming, acting skills, charades and songs are very useful and interesting activities for reinforcing grammar concepts. They can be performed or acted spontaneously in groups. They are important for kinetic learners and create memorable lessons. The students will remember them better than a traditional way of teaching.
Activity 7 (20 minutes) – This activity is suggested by Michael Vince, the author of Macmillan English Grammar in Context, 2008, p.38:
“Read the information about environmental problems and their solutions. Then make five statements about what you’re going to do and five about what you’re not going to do to solve these problems.
Examples:
I’m going to recycle paper.
I’m going to take a shower instead of a bath.
I’m not going to waste glass.
I’m not going to use father’s car when going to school.
Activity 8 – a role-playing activity. In pairs, the students will practice and answering questions about the future, using be going to. They will be given the following situation and a time limit (10 minutes):
Student A: Your friend is going to go to the mall with three other friends. Ask and answer the next questions:
When are you going to go to the mall? …………………………………………………………………………
Who are you going to go with? ………………………………………………………………………
How are you going to travel there? …………………………………………………………………
What are you going to do there? …………………………………………………………………….
What are you going to buy? …………………………………………………………………………..
Are you going to watch a film there? ………………………………………………………………..
Student B: Read the following situation and answer your partner’s questions.
You are going to go to the mall on Saturday. Your friends, Maria, Sonia and Sara are going to come with you. Your dad is going to drive you there. You are going to do some shopping for a friend’s birthday and then watch a new film at the cinema.
The students can switch roles and they can talk about their real future intentions for the weekend.
Activity 9 (15 minutes) – Using cut-outs from magazines, newspapers or internet pictures to make predictions. What is going to happen next?
Examples:
Her boss is going to come and see her sleeping.
She is going to receive a phone call and wake up.
She is going to be sacked.
She is going to have a beautiful dream.
She is going to remember what she has learnt.
She is going to get a low/high mark on the test.
She is going to cheat on the test.
She is going to yawn/cry.
Activity 10 (15 minutes) – Drawings are a fast source of material that can be used when teaching. If the teacher is not very good at teaching, she/he can use the internet to download pictures. For this activity, the teacher asks the students to imagine what they think their mothers plan to do next on the way back from work.
The teacher can draw a person, supposing to be a mother and bubbles around it, containing various objects, representative for the activity the mother is going to do. The secondary school students enjoy on the spot drawings, they make comments, which is a good start to grab their attention; they can even draw the pictures if they like to.
Activity 11 (20 minutes) – Paused films. The teacher shows a part of a film that might interest students and pauses the film just when a character does something exciting. The students have to predict what the character does, by using be going to: He/ She is going to fall in the lake.
TEACHING THE FUTURE CONTINUOUS
Activity 1- (will be + V-ing) (10 minutes) Procedure: The teacher asks the students to write down what they do every day and the time they do it. Then they share with a partner (their deskmate) what they will be doing tomorrow at different times, using the future continuous.
Examples: I will be going to school at 7.30. I will be finishing school at 2 pm.
Activity 2 (20 minutes) – My Future (activity from 700 classroom activities, David Seymour& Maria Popova, Macmillan, 2003). In pairs, the students copy the table and fill it in with their partners by asking him/her questions, for example: Where will you be working in ten years’ time?
Expected answers: I will be working in a hospital/school/ garage/ on a farm. I will be having one child/two children/ no children.
It can also be used for simple future sentences, for example:
I will be a farmer. / I will be a nurse. / I will be a lorry driver. / I will work in a computer business.
Activity 3 (20 minutes) – The students are given worksheets with the following requirements: “Mr. Thomson works in a travel agency. Look at the pictures and say what he will be doing at different times tomorrow.”
Examples: At 7 am he will be getting up. At 7.15 am he will be having a shower. At 7.30 am he will be having breakfast. At 12 pm he will be working/will be making a phone call. At 6 pm he will be shopping. At 6.30 pm he will be walking his dog in the park. At 7 pm he will be having dinner/supper with his wife/girlfriend. At 9 pm he will be watching TV. At 10 pm he will be reading his book.
Similar activities can be set for different people, such as little Lilly, and the students can mention the times themselves.
Activity 4 (20 minutes) – The students have to make future continuous questions to ask somebody politely (pair work):
What time they are planning to get up;
What they plan to eat in the morning;
What they plan to wear at school;
How they intend to travel to school;
Whether they plan to have lunch at the school canteen;
Whether they plan to do their homework in the afternoon;
What film they intend to watch at night;
When they plan to go to bed.
Questions: What time will you be getting up?
What will you be eating in the morning?
What will you be wearing at school?
How will you be travelling to school?
Will you be having lunch at the school canteen?
Will you be doing your homework in the afternoon?
What film will you be watching at night?
When will you be going to bed?
Activity 5 (20 minutes) – The students design and describe their ideal car of the future- what it will look like; what it will be able to do. (The source of the picture https://www.business2community.com/automotive/technologies-expect-cars-future-0937592)
Activity 6 (30 minutes) –“Will a robot do your job in the future?” The students are asked to answer the question and elaborate. All answers are written on the board and compared to the TED Talk given in 2016 by Anthony Goldbloom called “The Jobs that we’ll lose to machine-and the ones we won’t”. The students can be given the transcript of the TED Talk and they have to underline and observe the use of future tenses.
TED Talks offer both a rich diverse teaching material and lessons for life, which can inspire students, spark their interest and make them think critically.
Activity 7 (15 minutes) – the students think of their next birthday and write six things they will be doing at different times that day.
Examples: I will be helping mum in the kitchen at 2 o’clock.
I will be setting up the table at 4 o’clock.
I will be receiving my guests at 4.30.
I will be eating at 5 o’clock.
I will be opening the presents at 8 o’clock.
I will be cleaning the dining room at 9 ‘clock.
Activity 8 (20 minutes) – SONGS – “She’ll be coming round the mountain”.
Procedure: the students are given worksheets with the American song lyrics and the missing verb forms, paying attention to the future time clause. Before playing the song and filling in, the teacher asks the students to think of possible answers for the question: Who is “she”? Most probably, they will say that “she” is a woman/a lady/a girl/a mother etc. The teacher gives information about the song, “she” is actually a train and the song was first sung by workers who were laying tracks for the railroads that crossed the eastern part of the United States in the 1860s. The workers adapted an old hymn, “When the Chariot Comes”, in which “King Jesus” is the driver of a chariot pulled by angels, to celebrate the modern miracle of railroads.
(Picture taken from the internet, from an article on the American railway history, source http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r013.html)
The students fill in the text while listening to the song on a CD or on youtube.com.
She ………………………….(come) round the mountain when she ………..(come),
She ………………………….(come) round the mountain when she ………..(come),
She ………………………….(come) round the mountain,
She ………………………….(come) round the mountain,
She ………………………….(come) round the mountain when she ………..(come).
She ………………………….(drive) six white horses when she ………..(come),
She ………………………….(drive) six white horses when she ………..(come),
She ………………………….(drive) six white horses,
She ………………………….(drive) six white horses,
She ………………………….(drive) six white horses when she ………..(come).
Oh, we ………………………….(all go) out to meet her when she ………..(come),
Oh, we ………………………….(all go) out to meet her when she ………..(come),
Oh, we ………………………….(all go) out to meet her,
Oh, we ………………………….(all go) out to meet her,
Oh, we ………………………….(all go) out to meet her when she ………..(come),
Then, the teacher and the students go over the answers together and the teacher asks the students why they choose those forms and provides further grammar explanations if needed. The students sing the song.
As a variant, the teacher can use this song to story-tell. The students imagine that “she” is a woman, not a train, and they invent a story about her, answering the next questions:
Who is “she”? (Example: “She is my aunt.”)
How old is she?
Who are “we”?
Where does she live? Where is she from?
Why is she coming?
How often does she come?
How long is she planning to stay for?
What else do you know about her?
TEACHING THE FUTURE PERFECT
Activity 1 (15 minutes) – in groups of three or four, discuss the changes you expect by the end of the twenty-first century. In each group one of the students writes a short paragraph and presents it to the rest of the class.
Examples: By the end of the 21st century, people will have driven only electric cars.
By the end of the 21st century, scientists will have discovered a cure for cancer.
By the end of the 21st century, people will have built houses on the moon.
By the end of the 21st century, people will have made the environment safer.
By the end of the 21st century, the world would have become more tolerant.
Activity 2 (15 minutes) – in pairs, the students have to ask and answer questions with the future perfect continuous following the model:
By next summer,
How long will you have been living in the village/town?
How long will you have been learning French?
How long will you have been learning English?
How long will you have been going to school?
How long will you have been playing football/handball/tennis?
TEACHING BE + infinitive- most often used to talk about
official plans and fixed personal arrangements
Activity 1 (20 minutes) – the students are given a worksheet with the schedule of the Prime Minister, Mrs. Markinson and they have to write full sentences about her schedule, using is to.
Examples: The Prime Minister is to arrive at the airport at 7 o’clock. She is to have breakfast with the mayor at 8 o’clock. She is to tour the new car factory between 9 and 10 o’clock.
VARIOUS/Mixed-up TENSES/STRUCTURES
Activity 1 – Internet searching exercise (15minutes). The students are asked to use a search engine (e.g. Google) in order to find simple sentences beginning with:
I promise I will…
You will have finished …….
The president is to…..
He will be travelling ……………..
Possible findings: I promise I will make it up to you. You will have finished your report by this time next week. The president is to meet with a number of House Republicans on Tuesday. He will be travelling to his home town next year.
The students read and discuss their findings.
Activity 2 (15 minutes) – This exercise can be used to check the understanding of use of will, shall and be going to. The students have to fill in the sentences using will, shall or be going to and the verb in brackets:
Your head teacher asks you about your future studies, and you say you are planning to study biology (to study)
………………………………………………………………………………………
Your mum asks you what you want for breakfast. (to have)
……………………………………………………………………………………….
Your grades haven’t been so good this year and you promise your parents to do better ( to learn)
……………………………………………………………………………………….
You see an old lady carrying a heavy bag and you offer to help her (to help).
……………………………………………………………………………………….
You are in a restaurant and your father asks you what dessert you want (to eat).
……………………………………………………………………………………….
You have just received a prize for painting and tell your parents about your future plans (to be).
………………………………………………………………………………………..
Your sister cannot lock her suitcase. Offer to help. (to unlock)
…………………………………………………………………………………………
Your brother doesn’t trust you when coming to passing your driving test. You make a promise. (to pass)
……………………………………………………………………………………….
Activity 3 (15 minutes) – What will you do/ are you going to do with it? The teacher shows the students cards with different objects on them and asks the students to make up sentences with will (for instant decisions) or be going to (for plans).
Examples:
a cat →I will/am going to play with/feed it.
a flower →I will/ am going to smell/give it to mom.
a book →I will/am going to read /open it.
Other objects: a mirror, a ball, a balloon, a monkey, a bicycle, a phone, an apple, a plastic bottle, a torch, a radio, a CD, a match, a mouse, a chair, a cup of tea, a door, a walking stick, a goat, a horse, a rubber etc.
Activity 4 (15 minutes) – when teaching will versus be going to, the teacher gives the students one situation and two different possible statements and they have to choose and discuss the differences.
You are fishing with a friend and see black clouds approaching. What do you say?
“Look! It will rain!”
“Look! It’s going to (gonna) rain!”
Explanation: ‘be going to’ is preferred because there is evidence that the event is about to happen.
The President is talking to one of his ministers:
“The crisis is going to soon be over.”
“The crisis will soon be over.”
Explanation: ‘will’ is preferred because this is a formal context/register.
A boy is talking to his mom after struggling himself with his homework.
Will you help me with my homework, please?
Are you going to help me with my homework, please?
Explanation: ‘will’ is used for requests, ‘be going to’ is inappropriate.
Similarly, teachers can provide texts (real articles from English newspapers or magazines, for example) with different future structures and ask the students identify them, underline them and discuss the differences.
Activity 5- Public speaking-role play (50 minutes). Each student is assigned a role; the students can pair for some roles. The teacher gives them the possibility to choose among the following:
a weather presenter
a politician who is seeking support for his/her election
a fortune teller (and the person whose fortune he/she is reading)
an environment supporter
a high school graduate
a job applicant (and his/her future employer)
an 8th grader talking about his future plans
an inventor of a machine/device
The teacher gives the students 15 minutes to make their three minute-speeches, which must include future structures; they can work in pairs and decide who the speaker is. The most convincing speaker gets a prize. There can be a jury to evaluate them as well.
Activity 6- Gossips (10 minutes). The students sit in a circle and the teacher whispers a sentence that contains a future structure to the student on the right. The student whispers it to the next until the last one. The last student writes it on the board and compares it with the teacher’s sentence. The teacher gives further explanations regarding the usage of the structure.
Activity 7 (20 minutes) – "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" (or "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again") is a famous song from the American Civil War that expressed people's longing for the return of their friends and relatives who were fighting in wars.
The teacher gives the students worksheets with the lyrics, gives them cultural information about the song, explains new words and the students have to fill in the blanks, using the right form of the verbs in brackets. They must pay attention to the time clause.
“When Johnny……… (come) marching home again,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
We ………..(give) him a hearty welcome then
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The men………(cheer) and the boys …………(shout)
The ladies they ……….all( turn out)
And we ……..all (feel) gay when Johnny……… marching home.
The old church bell……….. (peal) with joy
Hurrah! Hurrah!
To welcome home our darling boy,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The village lads and lassies say
With roses they …….strew the way,
And we………….. all feel gay when Johnny………………..(come) marching home.”
Answers: comes/will (‘ll) give/will cheer/ will shout/will all turn out/will (‘ll)/comes
will peal/ will strew/ will(‘ll) all feel/comes
After finishing the exercise the students listen to the song and check their answers. They can sing and learn the song.
Activity 8 – there is a wide range of mobile apps for the students who are very fond of this means of learning. These apps can be introduced by the teacher in the classroom and the teacher should encourage students to use them at home, especially if the students intend to have exams in English and enhance their grammar knowledge. A few examples of good apps are:
English tense practice, which provides explanations, examples and exercises with the English tenses (multi-choice, arranging sentences). The students can analyze their results and check the right/wrong answers;
English Tense Book, which helps learners to see the differences between tenses and also provides practice for them;
Tenses in English, which covers all of the different tenses in English as well as practice;
English Tenses Training, which comprises easy and simple instructions for the tenses;
English Tenses and English Grammar, which provides explanations of tenses using affirmative, negative, interrogative and negative interrogative examples.
LESSON PLANS
WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?
Introduction: the lesson focuses on speaking and writing. Activities are teacher-lead where the students get to talk about plans and intentions using be going to. There should be a lot of encouragement for students to speak and share. Teacher’s role is to facilitate and provide a good environment for reading and speaking in the classroom.
Level: lower intermediate, 6th graders
Materials: classroom objects, different small objects, worksheets, blackboard/whiteboard, markers, pens/pencils.
Main skills: speaking, writing, reading
Time: 45-50 minutes
Lesson competences: By the end of the lesson,
The students will be able to use be going to when talking about plans and decisions,
Assumed knowledge: prepositions of place, vocabulary connected to the classroom, the verb be in the present tense, past tense
Aims for the teacher:
To involve as many students as possible in the activities,
To encourage students to talk in English in order to become more confident when talking in a foreign language,
To make students cooperate and work together,
To make students use their imagination and previous knowledge, encourage prediction,
To develop speaking, writing and reading skills,
To create a warm atmosphere in offer to offer background for smooth, easy conversations between the teacher (T) and students (SS).
Anticipated problems:
students might not use the verb be correctly,
students might have difficulty in asking questions correctly (word order),
Some students might not want to respond or they might be too shy to work in groups and share,
Too much noise as students become excited
Lack of student involvement, tiredness, boredom.
Required actions/Solutions: the teacher is prepared to help shy students, give more examples, clarify and provide more explanation if necessary or to cut the activity short and move on. If some students do not understand the tasks, they will eventually be translated into Romanian. Teachers should try to keep students busy as much as possible and not allow them to do something else or to fall asleep.
Teaching techniques: conversation, explanation, using visual aids, repetition, learning through play, brainstorming
Interaction: T-SS, T-S, S-SS, individual work, group work
Stage I – DISCOVERY
Put together some objects on a flat surface- teacher’s desk or any other desk- that are visible to all students. Check that the students know the name of the objects displayed and the prepositions of place (on, next to, between, in front of, behind, in etc.).
Get the students’ attention and tell them to listen and watch carefully. Announce what you plan to do. For example:
I’m going to take the red pen and put it on the desk. Then I’m going to take the ruler and place it next to the red pen. Then I’m going to put the black pencil case on the ruler. Then I’m going to put Angela’s book between the red pen and the ruler.
Invite a volunteer to do the same. At this point, you may want to draw attention to the language you have been using to announce your plans. Write on the board:
I’m going to take the red pen and put it on the desk.
At the end of the activity, draw attention to the structure be going to and point out that it is used to talk about plans and intentions. Give the form of the sentence if necessary: Subject+ am/are/is going to + verb
Stage 2 – CONSOLIDATION: give worksheets with the following matching activity and ask students to match the plans (on the left) with the evidence (on the right)
Stage 3 – USE: draw the following chart on the board:
Give examples for yourself: I’m going to correct some tests today (school). I’m going to cook today (free time). Ask the students to make notes in the chart and then exchange their charts with their deskmate, and ask and answer questions about it.
B. WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN?
Introduction: This lesson focuses on speaking and reading. Activities are teacher-led, where the students get to make predictions based on evidence.
Level: intermediate, 6th or 7th graders
Materials: a set of Evidence cards and a set of Person cards (Annex 1)
Main skills: speaking, reading
Time: 25-30 minutes
Lesson competences: By the end of the lesson,
students will be able to make predictions based on present evidence using be going to
Assumed knowledge:
students are familiar with classroom language and oral commands,
students have been taught: the verb be in the present tense
Aims for the teacher:
To involve as many students as possible in the activities,
To encourage students to talk in English in order to become more confident when talking in a foreign language,
To make students cooperate and work together,
To make students use their imagination and previous knowledge, encourage prediction,
To develop speaking and reading skills,
To create a warm atmosphere in offer to offer background for smooth, easy conversations between the teacher and the students.
Anticipated problems:
students might not use be correctly,
students might have difficulty in the word order,
Some students might not want to respond or they might be too shy to work in groups and share,
Too much noise as students become excited
Lack of student involvement, tiredness, boredom.
Required actions/Solutions: the teacher is prepared to help shy students, give more examples, clarify and provide more explanation if necessary or to cut the activity short and move on. If some students do not understand the tasks, they will eventually be translated into Romanian.
Teaching techniques: conversation, explanation, using visual aids, repetition, learning through play, brainstorming
Interaction: T-SS, T-S, group work
Stage 1 – before class, make a large set of the Evidence cards and one set of Person cards (see annex 1). On the back of the person cards, write the accompanying prediction. This is a game where learners have to speculate about what certain characters might say, given certain evidence. Stick the Evidence cards and the Person cards randomly on the board. Divide the class into teams of three-four students. Explain that they have to match the predictions with the people.
Stage 2 – One by one, they go to the board and come back with the evidence card and the person they think it matches the evidence. If he/she is wrong, someone else tries again.
For example: “It’s a penalty.” goes with the football fan.
When all the evidence cards have been taken by the teams, the next stage is to guess the prediction written on the card. If they are right, they get a point. If they are wrong, the other teams have a try and get a point. The team with the most points wins the game.
Stage 3- the students write the predictions on the board:
Examples: ship passenger: I’m going to be sick.
C. GOING ON A TRIP
Introduction: This lesson focuses on speaking about trip plans. The lesson is called “Going on a trip”.
Level: 7th grade, intermediate
Materials: a rucksack full of different (small) things that the teacher would take on a day trip (sunglasses, hat, sun cream, umbrella, book, map, phone, tablet, board games, phone charger, money, water, biscuits, sweets, pills, pen, tissues, hand sanitizer, chewing gum etc)
Main skill: speaking
Lesson competences: By the end of the lesson,
students will be able to share their ideas about items when travelling
students will be able to elaborate their choice
Teaching technique: brainstorming, visual aids, explanation, role play
Stage 1- T asks students to name items they would take on a trip.
Stage 2- T shows students what items she/he would take and stress out the sentences:
I’m going to take my sunglasses.
I’m going to pack my hat.
Stage 3- the students have to make up sentences using be going to (take, pack, buy) with the previously mentioned items. They can reach a consensus.
D. YOUR FUTURE
Introduction: This lesson focuses on writing and reading using future simple.
Level: secondary school, 7th, 8th forms, intermediate
Materials: worksheets, dice
Time: 30 minutes
Lesson competences: By the end of the lesson,
the students will be able to use future simple in their own sentences
the students will be able to talk about future
Procedure: the students form pairs. They are given sheets with 11 variants for 11 statements. By rolling the dice in turns, they circle the corresponding number shown on the dice.
1. Year. 2. Month. 3. Week. 4. Summer. 5. Tuesday. 6. Birthday.
1. Paris. 2. Sydney. 3. The toilet. 4. Tokyo. 5. Mars. 6. London.
1. Listen to music. 2. See the flowers. 3. Study English. 4. Talk to your mother. 5. Buy fish. 6. Eat 12 eggs in one minute.
1. Tall. 2. Happy. 3. Young. 4. Good-looking. 5. Ugly. 6. Short.
1. Boy. 2. Girl. 3. Ghost. 4. Penguin. 5. Monkey. 6. Alien.
1. Marry. 2. Talk to. 3. Walk to. 4. Dance with. 5. Go to Brasov with. 6. Play chess with.
1. Boy. 2. Girl. 3. Ghost. 4. Penguin. 5. Monkey. 6. Alien.
1. A volleyball game. 2. A disease. 3. An appointment. 4. Two left feet. 5. A test tomorrow. 6. Four legs.
1. Tom Cruise. 2. Ghita Muresan. 3. Your dog. 4. Your neighbour. 5. Donald Trump. 6. Madonna.
1. Sing a song! 2. Smile! 3. Play tennis! 4. Study English! 5. Climb that tree! 6. Ride a motorbike!
1. Be happy. 2. Cry. 3. Say “go away”. 4. Run after him/her. 5. Laugh. 6. Have fun.
Then the students fill in the blanks on the following text with their partner’s matches and read the text:
Next (a) …………………………………………..you will go to (2)………………..to (3). Yyou will meet a (4) ………………………..(5)……………………………….. You will say, “ I want to (6)………………………….you. Is that ok?” But the …………………… (7) ……………………………will say, “No, I’m sorry, you can’t. I have (8)………………………..”
Just then (9) …………………………………………will come and say, “Let’s (10)……………………………………You will (11)…………………………………………………..
When all students have finished the task, the teacher selects the students to read their partner’s future to the class.
E. TOMORROW’S WORLD
Introduction: The lesson mainly focuses on reading, but also implies writing, speaking and listening. Activities are teacher-led where the students read a text, match, answer questions and work in pairs.
Level: 7th Graders, intermediate
Materials: handbooks- English Scrapbook, Oxford University Press, board, chalk, pens
Lesson competences: By the end of the lesson,
students will be able to use will be + verb in –ing form in their own sentences
Assumed knowledge:
students have been taught the present continuous tense,
students have been taught will for predictions and will be able to for future possibility,
students are familiar with classroom language and oral commands.
Stage 1- The teacher asks a question: “What things do you think will be possible in the future that are not possible today?”
Aim- to focus the students’ attention on the topic by predicting text content.
The students may need help to express what they want to say. The teacher can rephrase and help them, making sure they use will and will be able to. Limit the students’ discussion to five minutes.
Possible answers: We will be able to travel to the moon. We will eat pills instead of food.
Stage 2- Read a magazine article called “Tomorrow’s World”, fifteen minutes
Aim: to check the students’ predictions.
The teacher should tell the students that they do not need to understand every word in the text, it is important to get the general idea. If they block on vocabulary, the teacher gives a translation into Romanian and moves on. The idea is to train the students accept that they cannot necessarily comprehend every word in the text.
Text: Tomorrow’s World
“We already know that today people can do things they never dreamed of fifty years ago. By having a satellite dish, the subscriber is able to see an incredible number of films on more than fifteen channels.
By using a video phone, you are able not only to talk to a person, but also to see the person you are talking to.
What kind of car will we be driving in 2030? Rather different from the type we know today. Designers say that the car of the future will have three wheels instead of four, it will be electrically powered, environmentally clean and able to drive itself along ‘intelligent’ roads which know where they are going.
Cars of the future will pick up their fuel from a power source built into the road.
The car of the year 20130 will have a changeable interior which will allow adults and children to sit in a family circle.
Cars will not need drivers because computers will help cars drive safely and find routes by themselves. By the year 2030, all drivers will have to do is to say where to go and the computers will do the rest. It will become impossible for cars to crash into one another.
The Television Computer Access System is one of the many scientific and technical developments which are likely to influence our future. The system will link the subscriber’s television set to a public computer by his telephone. It will be able to provide him with all sorts of information and services. It will teach him school subjects and, within seconds, the electronic teacher will tell him if he’s making progress.”
Stage 3- exercises on the text – vocabulary matching, answer questions, to check comprehension. The teacher can write the tense formation on the board and ask the students to provide examples from the text.
Stage 4- work in pairs.
Aim: to revise and extend the students’ awareness of continuous forms
The students take turns and answer these questions:
What are you doing now?
What will you be doing at this time tomorrow?
Possible answers: I am having my English class.
I will be having the history class.
This is also the feedback, get pairs to assess their success, by comparing and speaking out.
F. QUESTIONNAIRE – WHERE WILL YOU GO ON YOUR SUMMER HOLIDAY?
Introduction: Producing their own questionnaire helps students in many ways. Firstly, it allows them to create their own questions which may interest them. Secondly, students become more confident when they realize they are able to formulate their own questions in a correct way, which is the necessary base for interaction and communication. Mingling in the classroom can be noisy sometimes but it is also relaxing and fun, which allows learners to take in the language more easily.
There are different question types, such as: open-ended questions, yes/no questions, wh-questions, true/false statements, multiple choice, ranking items in order of importance, preference etc,. ‘finish the sentence’ or gap-fill sentences, ‘what will you do if…? questions.
Materials: blank pieces of paper, pens/pencils
Main skills: speaking, writing
Lesson competences: By the end of the lesson,
students will be able to ask and answer questions about future activities
students will be able to describe what they will do on their holidays.
Stage 1- The students have ten minutes to think about at least ten yes/no questions using future simple for activities they will do on their summer holiday, such as:
Will you go to the seaside? Will you go to the mountains? Will you play football? Will you visit your relatives/grandparents? Will you help your parents in the garden? Will you read books? Will you travel to a foreign country? Will you learn a new language? Will you play with your friends? Will you make new friends? Will you go on a school camp? Will you go fishing? Will you buy a new phone?
Stage 2 – The students read their sentences and the teacher writes ten of them on the blackboard to make up the questionnaire. The students copy these sentences on their blank sheets and they have to walk about the classroom and ask two people for each question. They have ten- fifteen minutes for this.
Stage 3 – the teacher chooses randomly students to read their sentences. This activity can last ten minutes. For example:
Emilia will go to the seaside. Dan will not/won’t go fishing. Maria will visit her grandmother. Sara will not/ won’t go on a school camp.
The teacher can point out that the students have many things in common, which can help students to find out more about themselves and their classmates.
G. LET’S TALK ABOUT FUTURE
Introduction: In this lesson the students speak freely about various aspects of their future life being guided by the teacher. It is a revision lesson.
Level: intermediate, 7th-8th graders.
Time: 60 minutes
Materials: worksheets, board, pens/pencils, chalk
Main skills: speaking
Lesson competences: By the end of the lesson,
students will be able to talk about future
students will be able to choose the most appropriate structure to express themselves
Assumed knowledge:
students are familiar with classroom language and oral commands,
students have been taught the future structures (future simple, present simple, be going to, present continuous)
Aims for the teacher:
To involve all students in the activities,
To encourage students to talk in English in order to become more confident when talking in a foreign language,
To make students cooperate and work together,
To make students use their imagination and previous knowledge, encourage prediction, critical thinking
To develop speaking skills,
To create a warm atmosphere, the necessary setting for language learning
Anticipated problems:
The students might not remember and use the future structures correctly,
Some students might not want to respond or they might be too shy to work in groups and share,
Required actions/Solutions: T is prepared to give more examples, clarify and provide more explanation if necessary or to cut the activity short and move on. If some students do not understand the tasks, they will eventually be translated into Romanian.
Teaching techniques: conversation, explanation, repetition, learning through play, brainstorming
Interaction: T-SS, T-S, S-S, individual work, pair work
Stage 1- the teacher divides students in pairs and asks them to talk on the following topics:
Their arrangements for this afternoon (present continuous)
Their intentions for the rest of the year (be going to)
Their prediction for the planet for 2030 (will + verb)
The teacher does not interfere much, she/he gives the students the opportunity to communicate and revise the future structures, just checks involvement and not hunting for mistakes (unless they are really important).
Stage 2- the teacher draws a chart on the board with the four future forms:
The teacher gives each pair of students one situation from a set and they have to stick each one under the corresponding future structure.
The set of situations:
When the board is completed, they can rearrange them if they notice they have made mistakes and the teacher can answer their questions. The students read the situations and the corresponding structures aloud.
Stage 3- the students make up ten sentences according to the above situations and the teacher corrects them if necessary.
Examples: The bus leaves at 5.30 am.
I’m visiting my aunt tonight.
It will be shiny tomorrow.
I won’t talk to her again!
The plane is going to land soon.
I promise I won’t forget you.
I will turn the TV on.
We will travel to other planets in the future.
The Prime Minister will visit Italy next week.
I will help you with the cooking.
Introduction: This lesson focuses on speaking and writing. Activities are teacher-led where the students get to read a train timetable and answer questions about trains. There should be a lot of encouragement for the students to speak and share. Teacher’s role is to facilitate and provide a good environment for reading and speaking in the classroom.
Level: young learners, 6th Grade (fifth year of study)
Materials: worksheets, animal cards, blackboard, chalk, pens/pencils.
Main skills: reading, speaking
Lesson competences: By the end of the lesson,
students will be able to recognize and use animal vocabulary in their own sentences,
students will be able to describe an animal,
students will be able to use can/can’t when talking about ability
Assumed knowledge:
students are familiar with classroom language and oral commands,
students have been taught: the verbs have got/be in the present tense, can/can’t, parts of the body, adjectives describing animals.
Aims for the teacher:
To involve as many students as possible in the activities,
To encourage students to talk in English in order to become more confident when talking in a foreign language,
To make students cooperate and work together,
To make students use their imagination and previous knowledge, encourage prediction,
To develop speaking and reading skills,
To enrich students’ cultural knowledge and stir up their interest regarding animals,
To create a warm atmosphere in offer to offer background for smooth, easy conversations between T and the students.
Anticipated problems:
The students might not use have/has got and be correctly,
The students might have difficulty in asking questions correctly (word order),
Some students might not want to respond or they might be too shy to work in groups and share,
Too much noise as the students become excited
Lack of student involvement, tiredness, boredom.
Required actions/Solutions: T is prepared to help shy students, give more examples, clarify and provide more explanation if necessary or to cut the activity short and move on. If some students do not understand the tasks, they will eventually be translated into Romanian.
Teaching techniques: conversation, explanation, using visual aids, repetition, learning through play, brainstorming
Interaction: T-SS, T-S, S-SS, individual work, group work
Types of exercises from handbooks in use,
Intermediate level
In Snapshot-Language Booster, Workbook, Authors: Chris Barker, Brian Abbs, Ingrid Freebairn, Publishing house: Longman, 1998, there are the following types of exercises:
Ex. 5 page 96
Complete the conversation, putting the verbs in brackets in the present continuous if possible. If it is not possible, use going to.
Tony: Let’s go to the beach on Saturday.
Steve: I can’t. …1…(I/look) after my little brother, Tim. My parents…2…(go) to Bristol tomorrow and…3…(they/leave) him at home with me.
Tony: How long…4…(they/be) in Bristol?
Steve: …5…(they/stay) there a week. I don’t think …6…(I/have) a very nice time with Tim. I looked after him last year and he was very naughty. This year …7…(I/try) to be very strict right from the start! …8…(you/do) anything tonight?
Tony: …9…(I/go) to Alex’s party. But I’m a bit worried because I’ve got my driving test tomorrow morning and…10…(I/be) really tired.
Suggested answers: 1- am looking; 2.are going; 3. are leaving; 4. are they going to be; 5. are going to stay/ are staying; 6. I’m going to have; 7. I’m going to try; 8. are you doing/ are you going to do; 9. am going; 10. am going to be.
In High Flyer, Intermediate level, Student’s Book, authors: Ana Acevedo and Marisol Gower, Longman, 1998, still in use, there are the following types of exercises:
Ex 6 page 31
Complete these sentences with the suitable future form of the verbs in brackets. In some cases there is more than one right answer.
Space scientists have predicted that some stars…………………… (crash) into Earth in about two thousand years.
‘The countdown has started The space shuttle ………………………….. (take off) in a few seconds. It …………………………. (put) a satellite in orbit. Then it ……………… (collect) a faulty satellite and returning it to Earth.’
More women are training to become astronauts. One day a woman ……………….. (go) to another planet.
Scientists think one day it ……………….(be) possible to live on Mars.
Russian scientists are planning to send space stations to Mars. They ……………………….(launch) them from Kazakhstan. The stations ……………………….(collect) information on the Martian environment.
It’s all arranged. The American rocket scientists ………………… (have) a meeting with their Russian colleagues next week.
Answers: 1. will crash/are going to crash; 2. will take off/is going to put/is putting/is collecting; 3. will go (is going to go is correct, but less likely); 4. will be ( is going to be is correct, but less likely); 5. are going to launch/will launch…will collect/ are going to collect; 6. are having (are going to have is correct, but less likely)
Ex. 1 page 52
Complete the sentences using will, going to or the present continuous of the verb in brackets:
I’ve got the tickets. We ……………….(fly) to New York on Wednesday.
Rap’s his favourite type of music. He ……………(love) this record.
Simon’s got this funny plan. He says he’s ………….(make) a rocket with old cans of lemonade!
Val ………………………..(make) a chocolate cake this afternoon. She’s already bought all the ingredients.
Do you think that one day man …………………….(live) on the moon?
I ……………………………… (stay) at home and read a book. That’s what I intend to do this evening.
Answers: 1. are flying; 2. will love/is going to love; 3. going to; 4. is going to make / is making; 5. will live;6. am going to stay.
Ex. 4 page 20 (workbook)
Look at the conversation between two mad scientists called Patrick and Joe. Fill in the spaces with the most suitable future form of the verb in brackets:
Patrick: Guess what. We …………………….. (1 do) something nobody has ever done.
Joe: What?
Patrick: Oh, I can’t tell you that. It’s a secret!
Joe: You can tell me. I …………………..(2 not tell) anyone.
Patrick: OK. We ………………………..(3 send) an astronaut to the SUN!
Joe; To the SUN! No, that’s impossible1
Patrick: Maybe, but we ……………….(4 do) it.
Joe: Well how? Surely he …………………..(5 burn). It ……………….( 6 be) too hot.
Patrick: Oh no, we’ve thought of that.
Joe: So, how………………….(7 solve) it?
Patrick: Well, we ………………………..(8 send) him at night!
Answers: 1. are going to do; 2. won’t tell; 3. are going to send; 4. are doing/ going to do; 5. will burn; 6. will be; 7. are you going to solve; 8. are going to solve.
Ex 5 page 20 (workbook) Fill in the verbs in the most suitable future form.
Mario wants to become an astronaut. He is very happy because he _______(1 attend) a short introductory course next week. The course _________ ( 2 give) him a general overview of the skills required for the job. For example, one of the topics ___________( 3 be) how to cope with the lack of oxygen and the lack of gravity. He __________(4 have to) learn about the potential dangers and risks and how to minimize these. At the end of the course there _________( 5 be) a test and if he does well he _______(6 be able) to attend a four year training programme which ______________(7 enable) him to become an astronaut. On the last day of the course they _____________(8 experience) being in a simulator which _______________he (10 not look forward to). One of them is the written test.
Answers: 1. is attending; 2. will give; 3. is going to be; 4. will have to; 5. will be; 6. will be able to; 7. will enable; 8. are going to experience; 9. will feel; 10. is not looking forward to.
In Just Right, intermediate, Jeremy Harmer, Marshall Cavendish Education, 2004:
Ex.7 page 67 – Which future form would you choose in the following cases? ( often more than one is possible):
a. We (travel) to Boston on Sunday.
b. He (go) to Manchester in May.
c. I bet she (pass) her exam.
d. I can’t come to your party. I (play) in a concert that evening.
e. I (never/forget) you, I promise.
f. I (try) harder at school from now on.
g. The train (arrive) at five-fifteen.
h. Look! There’s George. I need to speak to him. I (see) you in a minute.
i. Oh no! Look at the fuel gauge. We (run out of) petrol.
j. She (learn) how to windsurf on holiday next year.
Answers: a. are travelling/are going to travel; b. are going; c. will pass; d. am playing/will play/will be playing; e. will never forgive; f. will try/am going to try; g. arrives; h. will see; i. will run out of/ are going to run out of; j. will learn/ is going to learn.
In Close-up, Student’s Book, C1, authors Angela Healan and Katrina Gormley, National Geographic Learning, 2016, suggest the following exercise (page 22):
”Read the sentences below and underline the future forms.
Shall I help you install the new computer programme?
I will be talking to my cousins on Skype at three o’clock.
They’re opening another Internet café in town next week.
I’m not happy with my new laptop; I’m going to return it.
On day three, we visit the mobile phone factory.
They will have updated the news site by the time you log on.
I think you’ll find this website very informative.
By the summer, I will have been using social networking sites for five years.
Which sentence from A expresses
A future event that will take place before another time in the future?
A long action/ situation before a specific future time?
An intention?
An action in progress at a future time?
An itinerary?
A prediction based on personal opinion?
An offer?
A fixed arrangement for the near future?
Match the names of the tenses with the uses from B
Future simple
Future continuous
Future perfect simple
Future perfect continuous
Present simple
Present continuous
Be going to
Shall”
CONCLUDING REMARKS
In English, there are various ways to talk about future. We can use any of the following forms: the present simple, the present continuous/progressive, the future simple, the future continuous, the future perfect or other means of expressing future such as ‘be going to’, ‘be to’ and others.
The difference between them is the nature of the speaker’s perception of the future act or event. Nobody except the speaker can acknowledge that. All we can do is to point out similar uses and we can make contrast with the uses of different forms in order to indicate the nature of the events described by particular verb forms. Thus,
Present simple is used when we talk about timetables, routines and schedules:
School starts on 15th September.
My bus leaves at 1 o’clock.
There is an entire range of verbs usually used in such contexts: start, begin, end, leave, set off, come, go, depart, arrive, come, open, close etc.
These events are assumed to take place without fail, so they imply the highest degree of certainty.
We use present simple in adverbial clauses of time referring to future after conjunctions: when, as soon as, before, after, until, once, by the time, the moment (that). To this list we can add the first conditional if.
Present continuous is common when we talk about fixed personal plans and arrangements, when we know and give the time, the date or the place.
What are you doing tonight? I’m watching my favourite soup on TV.
Future simple is used when we make statements about future:
I will phone her tomorrow. We will go shopping at the weekend.
We use future simple for promises, threats, offers, requests or refusals and after verbs such as think, believe, be sure, hope, fear, doubt, suppose, expect.
I’m sure it will rain. I suppose he won’t come.
The future simple is mainly present in media, on TV news broadcasts, when formal announcements or announcements about the weather are made. In speaking, people use be going to or present continuous for plans.
Newspaper: The president will visit Spain tomorrow.
The reader: The president is visiting/ is going to visit Spain.
It is also used for spontaneous decisions: This project is hard. I will give you a hand.
Future continuous is used to say that something will be going on at a certain time in the future:
I’ll be sleeping tomorrow at 3 o’clock.
They’ll be working at noon.
It is also used for planned or expected future events: I’ll be calling you soon.
Future perfect is used to say that something will have been completed by a certain time in the future:
By the time she arrives I will have finished my homework.
On 14th April they will have been friends for twenty years.
Future perfect continuous can be used to say how long something will have continued by a certain time:
Next year I will have been working in this school for twenty years.
Be going to is used when the speaker has evidence of the future event ( something that can be seen or something planned)
It’s going to rain.
She’s going to quit her job.
At an intermediate level, future can be taught using a large variety of exercises, such as: diaries, pictures, drawings, stories, songs, horoscopes, weather predictions, calendars, New Year’s resolutions, poetry, TED talks, films, interviews, readers and others, and it is often the teacher’s choice according to the students’ age, interests or level.
Some future forms are less used than others, for example future perfect or future continuous, though they are equally as important to teach and recognize as the others. Students should also pay attention to the lexical time words (tomorrow, tonight, next summer etc.), which indicate what structures can be used with them.
There is a tendency among students to use future simple (will+ verb) for all situations but with practice and a large variety of teaching methods and materials, they will be able to distinguish between them and use them accordingly.
With practice, students should also be able to translate the structure ‘be going to’ correctly.
It is worth pointing out that grammar is meant to simplify understanding, not to make it harder and more confusing; thus, structures should be taught in appropriate contexts, related to real life and situations.
Nowadays children and teenagers are tightly connected to technology, sometimes they are a few steps ahead of teachers, so they might what to know why they hear gonna when talking to their virtual friends on the internet whereas the teacher is teaching going to in the classroom. The teacher should expose them to all varieties of English, either formal or informal/colloquial, because English is the language of communication after all.
In order to shape an overview of English teachers on future tense, I have created an online questionnaire on future tenses for intermediate students and I have received the following answers from 24 recipients:
Questions 1: What are the most effective methods/strategies when teaching future tenses?
Answers:
Explaining future forms on the board and then practice them – 58.34 % (14)
Let the students discover the forms by themselves from a text – 8.33 % ( 2)
Introduce future tenses by different scenarios – 25 % (6)
Other (please specify) – guided discovery – 8.33 % (2)
Question 2: What future tense do your students find easy to comprehend and eventually use in their own sentences?
Open answers:
Future simple (will)- 83.33 % (20)
Be going to – 16.67 % (4)
Question 3: What future tenses do your students find difficult to comprehend and use in their own sentences?
Open answers:
Future continuous
Future perfect simple
Future perfect continuous
Present continuous with future meaning
Be going to
Present simple with future meaning
Question 4: Which future tenses do your students tend to mix and misunderstand if taught together?
Open answers:
Future simple with be going to – 75 % (18)
Future continuous with future perfect continuous- 8.33% (2)
Be going to with present continuous – 17.02 % (4)
Question 5: How do you solve the ambiguities your students have in distinguishing future tenses?
Open answers: explain through real situations, through practice, provide examples, state the differences between them; point out the time adverbials, point out the specific language functions for each tense, use songs and videos, give examples in Romanian, translate into Romanian.
Drawing conclusions, more than half of the questioned Romanian teachers of English still prefer a deductive approach, with rules and explanations and then practice, whereas the others prefer teaching from examples, that is inductive learning. Whatever the approach, the teachers should consider the rules for effective grammar teaching and according to Scott Thornbury in How to Teach Grammar, Pearson Education Limited 1999, p.176, they are: “The Rule of Context; The Rule of Use; the Rule of Economy; The Rule of Relevance; The Rule of Nurture; The Rule of Appropriacy.”
In order to identify the ambiguities among students regarding future structures (future simple, present continuous, be going to) and clarify them, I have tried two different approaches. Thus, I have done two different lesson plans with the same level students from classes 7th A and 7th B.
First Lesson Plan
Introduction: This lesson focuses on teaching grammar- future simple, be going to and present continuous as future. Activities are teacher-led where the students get to read, answer questions, talk about space, practice and use the future structures accordingly. There should be a lot of encouragement for SS (students) to speak and share. The teacher’s role is to facilitate and provide a good environment for reading and speaking in the classroom.
Title/Topic: Space and space travel
Level: intermediate learners, 7th A Grade (sixth year of study)
Number of students: about 25
Time: one class period (50 minutes)
Materials: handbook (High Flyer, Longman, 1998 edition), blackboard, chalk, notebooks, pens/pencils.
Main skills: reading, writing, speaking
Curriculum specifications: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2
Lesson competences: By the end of the lesson,
SS will be able to recognize and use the future structures in their own sentences,
SS will be able to talk about space and space travel
Assumed knowledge:
SS are familiar with classroom language and oral commands,
SS have been taught the above tenses separately before, they have been taught the present continuous (used for activities happening now), future simple and be going to.
Aims for the teacher (T):
To involve as many SS as possible in the activities,
To encourage SS to talk in English in order to become more confident when talking in a foreign language,
To make SS use their imagination and previous knowledge, encourage prediction,
To develop speaking and reading skills,
To enrich SS’ cultural knowledge and stir up their interest regarding space/the universe,
To create a warm atmosphere in offer to offer background for smooth, easy conversations between T and SS.
Anticipated problems:
SS might not use the future forms correctly,
SS might have difficulty in asking questions correctly (word order),
Lack of student involvement, tiredness, boredom.
Required actions/Solutions: The teacher is prepared to help shy students, give more examples, clarify and provide more explanation if necessary or to cut the activity short and move on. If some students do not understand the tasks, they will eventually be translated into Romanian.
Teaching techniques: conversation, explanation, repetition, brainstorming
Interaction: T-SS, T-S, S-SS, individual work
Resources:
Bibliographical: The handbooks used for the seventh graders, High Flyer, Longman
Human: the students of the class.
LESSON STAGES:
Activity 1 – 5 minutes
Goal: to warm up students
Materials: a map with the solar system (if necessary)
Interaction: T-SS
Procedure: T greets the SS, has the usual conversation with them and asks them to name the planets of the solar system and other questions regarding them.
Activity 2 – 15 minutes:
The teacher announces the topic of the lesson and writes it on the blackboard: 2030: Mars!
Goal: to use space vocabulary, to describe Mars, to answer questions about space and space travel, to pay attention to the future structures in the text
Materials: handbooks, notebooks, pens/pencils
Interaction: T-SS
Procedure: the SS open their handbooks and do ex. 1, page 30, where they have to put the planets in the right order, from the nearest to the furthest from the sun. The teacher checks the task. Then the T asks the SS to read the text about Mars silently and read it again aloud and do ex 3 on page 30, where they have to find specific information in the text. Before that, the teacher will explain some vocabulary if needed. The teacher goes through the answers with the class
Activity 3 – 10 minutes
Goal: to teach will, be going to and present continuous as future
Materials: handbooks, blackboard, chalk, notebooks, pens
Interaction: T-SS, S-SS
Procedure: The teacher takes out from the text three sentences, one with will, one with be going to and one with present continuous and get the students identify and underline the future structures.
Examples: “Space stations and robots will provide us with that information.
Man is going to land on the planet-around 2030.
Our technicians are testing all the components in the next few months.”
The teacher asks the students if they can see any differences among the future structures and then gives further explanations: Be going to is used when we have clear evidence that something will happen, will is used when we are not sure about the future events and it is also used after certain expressions (I think, I’m sure etc.) and present continuous is used for sure plans and arrangements. The teacher gives more examples.
Activity 4 – 20 minutes.
Goal: to provide practice for the future structures and use them in sentences
Materials: Handbooks, blackboard, chalk, notebooks, pens
Interaction: T-SS, S-SS
Procedure: solve exercises 5, 6 on page 31 and write them on the blackboard and the notebooks and do exercise 7 orally.
Exercise 5 implies matching three pictures with three sentences. In exercise 6 the students have to complete the sentences with the suitable future forms of the verbs in brackets and they are warned that in some cases there is more than one correct answer. In exercise 7, they have to agree/disagree with some statements, such as: “There is no life on other planets.”/” Scientists don’t know everything.” The teacher goes through the answers with the class.
CONCLUSIONS after the lessons: most of the students do not sense the differences among the above structures and they are likely to use “will” for all situations and contexts. They are still confused regarding the use of present continuous for future arrangements. The exercises in the handbook do not help the SS understand the differences as they rely on the speaker’s choice, which puzzles them. Further explanations and practice are needed.
Second Lesson Plan
Introduction: This lesson focuses on acquiring and using future structures correctly when talking about making decisions and plans regarding summer holiday- future simple, be going to and present continuous
Activities are teacher-led where the students get to read, answer questions, talk about future plans, practice and use the future structures accordingly. There should be a lot of encouragement for SS (students) to speak and share. The teacher’s role is to facilitate and provide a good environment for reading and speaking in the classroom.
Title/Topic: My summer holiday
Level: intermediate learners, 7th B Grade (sixth year of study)
Number of students: about 25
Time: one class period (50 minutes)
Materials: worksheets, blackboard, chalk, notebooks, pens/pencils.
Main skills: reading, writing, speaking
Curriculum specifications: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2
Lesson competences: By the end of the lesson,
SS will be able to recognize and use the future structures in their own sentences,
SS will be able to talk about future plans and arrangements in the context of going on holiday or elsewhere
Assumed knowledge:
SS are familiar with classroom language and oral commands,
SS have been taught the above tenses separately before, they have been taught the present continuous (used for activities happening now), future simple and be going to.
Aims for the teacher (T): all the previous ones
Anticipated problems: all the previous ones
Required actions/Solutions: The teacher is prepared to help shy students, give more examples, clarify and provide more explanation if necessary or to change the activity. If some students do not understand the tasks, they will eventually be translated into Romanian.
Teaching techniques: conversation, explanation, repetition, brainstorming
Interaction: T-SS, T-S, S-SS, individual work, pair work
Resources:
Bibliographical: worksheets with a dialogue, created by the teacher and worksheets with exercises
Human: the students of the class.
LESSON STAGES:
Activity 1 – 5 minutes
Goal: to warm up students, to set the lesson context and engage the SS
Materials: blackboard
Interaction: T-SS
Procedure: T greets the SS, has the usual conversation with them, and writes the word ‘summer’ on the blackboard. Then the T asks the SS to come up with verbs (they can be followed by nouns) that they think of when they hear the word ‘summer’.
Examples: Summer- go on holiday, climb mountains, swim in the sea, go fishing, pick vegetables, play with friends, visit relatives, read books, ride a bike, walk in the park, go on a camp, travel abroad, build sandcastles, have a party, take photographs, have a picnic, go hiking, put up a tent, play games etc.
Activity 2 – 20 minutes
The teacher announces the topic of the lesson and writes it on the blackboard: My summer holiday
Goal: to use holiday vocabulary, to talk about future plans and arrangements
Materials: worksheets, notebooks, pens/pencils
Interaction: T-SS
Procedure: the T gives the SS the following worksheets:
Worksheet – My summer holiday
Exercise 1. Underline and identify the future structures in the sentences and then answer the questions:
Stop pressing so hard on the phone. You’re going to break it! _____
Robots will replace teachers in the future. _____
Grandma is not well, so I am visiting her this weekend._____
Which sentence
expresses a fixed arrangement in the future? ____
makes a prediction based on an evidence ?_____
refers to a prediction? _____
Exercise 2. In pairs, read and act the conversation between two students, Mary and John, talking about their plans for the summer holiday. Then answer the questions below. The students can also make up their own dialogues after reading it.
Mary: Hi, John. The school is nearly over. Have you got any plans for this summer holiday?
John: Hi, Mary. Well, I do, actually. My mum has already booked a hotel in Greece. So, I’m travelling to Athens at the beginning of July. From there we are travelling by plane to Mykonos.
Mary: How nice! Won’t it be too hot in July?
John: Perhaps it will, but mum thinks it won’t be too crowded in July. I’m going to swim a lot anyway. What about you? Any plans?
Mary: I’m sure you’ll have lots of fun. I do have some plans too. I’m joining a robotics club next month and I’m visiting my aunt in Spain in August.
John: Great! What will you do in the club?
Mary: I will build Lego robots. I will show you when I complete it.
John: How long are you staying at your aunt?
Mary: I’m planning to stay for a week. She said I will visit many places and I will eat traditional food.
John: That sounds good. Who will you go with?
Mary: I’m going alone. My aunt is waiting for me at the airport.
John: Really? You are so brave!
Mary: Thanks. Make sure that you take lots of photos from Athens.
John: You too. See you tomorrow!
Questions: 1) What are John’s sure plans for the summer holiday?
2) What are Mary’s sure plans for the summer holiday?
3) What is John going to do in Mykonos?
4) What will Mary do on her summer holiday?
Activity 3- 5 minutes
Goal: to clarify the future structures
Materials: blackboard, notebooks, pens/pencils
Interaction: T-SS
Procedure: The T draws a conclusion regarding the future structures, writes and gives more examples on the blackboard
Will (future simple) is used to make predictions about the future; it is also used after ‘I’m sure/I think’
I will go fishing with dad soon.
I think he will pass the exam.
Present continuous is used when we talk about sure plans and arrangements,
I’m watching “Vlad” tonight at 7.30.
Be going to is also used for intentions and for predictions based on evidence
Look! That plane is going down. It’s going to crash!
Activity 4 – 10 minutes, pair work
Goal: to provide fluency speaking practice in conversations using the above future structures
Materials: pieces of paper with different topics.
Interaction: S-S
Procedure: The T pairs the SS and asks them to have a conversation on the topic they pick. Then the T asks a few pairs to reproduce their conversations.
Topics: A. your plans for the weekend E. your plans when you finish this school
B. you hopes for the future F. your plans for the summer holiday
C. your next birthday G. what you are going to do in the next break
D. your plans for this evening H. how the world will be when you are 60
Activity 5 – 10 minutes
Goal: to provide and practice the above future structures
Materials: worksheets with exercises
Interaction: T-SS, S-SS
Procedure: The T asks SS to do the exercises on the worksheets and goes through the answers with the class
Exercises:
Complete the sentences using the correct future tense:
Tomorrow afternoon I’m ………………………………………………
I think I …………………………………………………………………
I am hungry so I ………………………………………………………..
Look at those black clouds! It ………………………………………….
The man is on the edge of the swimming pool. He ……………………
At 5 o’clock I’m ……………………………………………………….
When I am 20, I ………………………………………………………..
I’m sure you ……………………………………………………………
B. Put the verb in brackets into the most suitable form, present continuous or future simple:
1. What (you/do) on Friday night? Would you like to go to the cinema?
2. I think I (stay) at home tonight. I feel tired.
3. I (go) to Turkey next week. Maybe I (send) you a letter.
4. I’m sorry, I can't meet you tomorrow afternoon. I (see) my dentist.
5. The bus (probably/leave) late again.
6. What time (you/meet) Ana tomorrow?
7. Do you think it (snow) tonight?
8. Sandra (have) a party next Sunday. A lot of schoolmates (come).
Homework: make a planner for the next week.
CONCLUSIONS: more students have understood the differences among the future structures and can use them in their own sentences quite correctly. The topic- holidays seemed more approachable and enjoyable, too, in comparison with the topic from the school handbook. Dialogues, such as the one in the second lesson, can be a model for getting the students to make their own dialogues. While asking to change and act them, the weaker students can change them a little, whereas the stronger students can change more elements. The advantage of an English teacher is that he/she can choose the materials for the lesson, be appropriately flexible and adapt the content accordingly.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Basic English Grammar, 3rd edition, Betty Schrampfer Azar, Stacy A. Hagen, Pearson Longman, 2005
700 Classroom Activities, David Seymour& Maria Popova, Macmillan, 2003
English Grammar. Forgotten Books, Lillian Gertrude Kimball, e-book, 2010
English Scrapbook, Student’s Book 7, Alaviana Achim and others, Oxford University Press, 1998
Grammar Practice Activities- A Practical Guide for Teachers, Penny Ur, Cambridge University Press, p. 117
If You Feel Like Singing, Alice H. Osman & Jean Mc Conochie, Office of English Language Programs, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States Department of State, 1993
Longman English grammar Practice for intermediate learners, L.G. Alexander, Longman, 1998
Macmillan English Grammar in context, Michael Vince, Macmillan, 2008
Oxford English Grammar Course, intermediate, Michael Swan, Catherine Walter, Oxford University Press, 2015
Practical Grammar, John Hughes and Ceri Jones, Heinle Cengage Learning, 2011
Project, Student’s Book, level 3, Tom Hutchinson, Oxford University Press, 2013
Teaching English Grammar, Jim Scrivener, Macmillan, 2010
Teaching Tenses, Rosemary Atkins, Thomas Nelson& Sons Ltd, 1992
Teaching Grammar Creatively, Günter Gerngross, Herbert Puchta, Scott Thornbury, Helbling Languages, 2006
The Grammar Activity Book, Bob Obee, Cambridge University Press, 1999
The Resourceful English Teacher, Jon Chandler and Mark Stone, Delta Publishing, 2003
Verbs and Tenses, George Davidson, Learners Publishing, 2003
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