ESL Teacher

I have a favourite activity to use when I’m teaching future tenses, especially for predictions using “will”. I copied it off a trainer in Japan, but I can’t remember who or I’d mention their name! In any case, many teachers use variations of it.

It’s easy: just get students to write down four or five different years, in the future. For example, 2010, 2015, 2020, and 2030. Just be careful if you’ve got older students and make sure you don’t tell them a year where it’s likely they’ll be dead.

Then ask them to write a “will” sentence predicting what will be happening to them in that year. For example, “In 2015 I’ll get married to a beautiful woman”, or “In 2030 I’ll be president of my country” – well, those are the kinds of examples my students usually come up with!

Once you have these basic sentences (which you can check and correct if you want) there are lots of ways to “play” with them – I love to use partners who become fortune tellers and they can predict whether these things will come true or not, and ask extra questions about them. It can turn into quite a hilarious lesson!

Funnily enough, the most memorable answer I ever had from a student is also the simplest. Yuko said something like “In 2040 I’ll walk down the street with my grandchildren”. It’s such a pure wish that I’ve never forgotten it, or the student who said it – one of the nicest I’ve ever met, and with such a good heart.

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