TP-6, Future Forms
Intermediate level
Description
Materials
Main Aims
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To provide clarification, review and practice of Future Forms in the context of People's future plans
Subsidiary Aims
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To provide specific information listening practice using a text about Future Forms in the context of Future career plans of students
Procedure (16-49 minutes)
From the very beginning, every student is needed to be put in the correct group to make the class more managable in terms of keeping balance between strong and weak students, young and old. Latecomers also involve in this, they will be directed for best group for them to attend the class.
Here, I will start with my own near future arrangements; what I do after class and the next day. This way may be engaging for students to learn something about teacher's life. Then, I will ask some questions about their life. 'What are you doing after class?', 'Will you go to work tomorrow?' and even perhaps 'Do you have any children?' 'What are they planning for the future?' This part will not take a lot of time and questions will be simple. There is also an architecture student. Including her into this question-answer process, I can step into the vocabulary part with a soft transition. ( the things young people plan for their future)
While students are giving answers to my questions about their future plans, we will be moving to vocabulary teaching stage very smoothly with the help of same questions in lead-in section. I may add 'What do young people plan for their future?', 'What is your son's or daughter's plan for his/her career?' After a few guesses (that can be written on board), I will give them some worksheets with pictures, words and phrases on it. They will try to match them together in their own groups. Afterwards, Group A and Group B will also check the answers together. Then, feedback will be provided with asking whole class the answers. If they have some inconsistencies, I will also provoke more interaction between them and then at the last stage, if needed I can give the answer. At last, I will model the pronunciation of the words for students. They can also see their guesses written on the board, make a comparision. This activity should not take longer than 3 minutes so I will keep time for every stage.
Before listening, the characters in the listening exercise will be introduced to the class and then, class members will listen these six students who talk about their future plans in order to catch the future forms they used. Learners will only fill the blanks which are parts of given sentences on the worksheet. Thanks to these exercise, students will try to discover future patterns. During listening, I will monitor the students to have an idea about their performance and to see how familiar they are to these forms. I also may give some clues where I realize they have some confusion or lack of knowledge. They will pair check the exercise after first listening and most likely they will ask for listening the record again. After the second repetition, I will give answer key to them to see the ones they've missed.
After students see the answer key, they will be able to compare their answers. They will need some revision of the sentences in less than a minute then, a short discussion part will be set in order to grasp what students really understand through these forms. Here some brief but thought-provoking CCQs can be used very effectively, but beforehand, learners will be asked 'Who knows the answer' and 'Who does not?' The answers can also guide the following questions, for instance while a student is explaining one specific student's answer, (e.g. Nora's 2nd sentence ; I am not going to apply....) some CCQs are put into play to raise students' awareness about the form and its function. 'Will Nora apply for law school this year?' 'Does she have any plans for this?' Ok, good! and what about Zak? 'Is he applying a journalism course?' 'Is he planning to do so?' and so on...Students are pushed into thinking to grip the functions.
After some exposure to future forms, students will be given worksheets to study alone and realize the rules with certain sentences. Nora's first sentence 1) I'll probably end up teaching drama in a secondary school. Dino's seventh sentence 7) I'm leaving in five days and Caroline's 11th sentence 11) I'm going to find a beach somewhere nice and hot. After reading the sentences again; they will match their meanings / functions (a prediction, a present intention and an arrangement) and forms by filling the blanks with the forms. I will TASK BEFORE TEXT with as the simplest instructions as possible. (Instructions; Now that you learnt all the answers and let's decide if the sentences 1,7 and 11 is a prediction, a present intention or an arrangement. Fill the blanks with their forms.) I can also write the words showing on the worksheet on the board to make them clearly understand the task. I will absolutely use ICQs here so as to be sure what they have understood from my instructions in the simplest way. (ICQs ; Are we reading the sentences 1,7 and 11'? - Yes. 'Are we matching their forms in correct places?'- Yes. 'Are we writing the forms in the blanks?'-Yes. Very good' They will be given mostly a minute to do the task in groups and then (Group A and Group B) they will be asked about their thoughts, whether they agree or not each other answers and why if they don't. After this clarification, students will be asked to give more examples about the functions. (e.g prediction ; I suppose I'll do some temporary job)
After students completed first part of the analysis, I will ask students to say the other future forms (e.g. ; I'm due to....., I'm about to...., I'm planning...., I'm thinking.....) in the text. If they do not have any further questions, I will move on right here but if they ask questions, I will try to explain in simplest terms.
In this stage, students will be given the worksheets to make full future formed sentences within mostly 4 minutes and then pair-check the sentences. Here, I will not intervene if they do not have any questions, but check them to introduce the task. (ICQs: Are we writing sentences?-Yes. Are we using 'will' for predict something ?- Yes. 'Are we using present continuous for arrangements?- No' and so on... Following their pair-check, students will be nominated one by one for the answers and others will be asked if they agree or not.
Students will be divided into two groups; 'Group A' and 'Group B'. I am going to nominate one in each group to draw a small piece of paper in my hands which is different tasks are written on. These are 1)Writing down three arrangements or appointments that you have got for the next week or two. 2) Write down how you think you'll spend next Sunday morning. 3) Write down one good intention you have got for this week. 4) Write down two ambitions you have got that are not connected with work. 5)Tell your partner about your hopes or plans for the next holiday. 6) Guess your partner's plan for this evening. 7) Tell your partner about your hopes or plans for your next holiday. After having their small task, I will write on the board what they have at hand and later on students will be given two minutes mostly to write their plans and ambitions. These free practice will be conducted between two groups to allow students to inteact with one and the other may be by asking questions. (some students can be nominated to ask questions to the other group if they want to) Every individual will be given a say.
After the first part of free practice is completed, one student from each group will choose next task as in the previous one. They will be given 2 minutes mostly to complete it and then some students in each group, will change their groups to start question-answer process in pairs, face to face. Here, I will monitor them and clarify the points on the board.
If time is not up, the same thing can be done with other brief tasks in their own group, but in pairs. students can ask questions each other about the same topic including previous questions.