Teaching Five Ways to Talk About the Future
Future forms are easier to understand when learners connect them to meaning rather than memorising rules. This 90-minute B2 lesson uses space tourism to help learners distinguish between predictions, evidence, possibilities, probable developments and officially announced plans. The topic also creates opportunities to discuss business, affordability and social inequality.
Remember to open the link to the Five Ways to Talk About the Future lesson materials with the button above or the following link for the learner article and exercises;
https://learningenglish.tailtiu.org/five-ways-to-talk-about-the-future/
Lesson overview
- Level: B2
- Age group: Secondary learners aged 14–15
- Time: Approximately 90 minutes
- Grammar: will, be going to, may/might/could, be likely to, and be set to
- Vocabulary: costs, investment, affordability, accessibility and inequality
- Materials: Five Ways to Talk About the Future and the downloadable exercise
Learning aims
By the end of the lesson, learners should be better able to:
- choose a future form according to the intended meaning;
- distinguish possibility, probability, evidence and official plans;
- make and justify predictions;
- discuss who may benefit from future developments in space tourism.
Five Ways to Talk About the Future- Lesson Plan and Procedure
1. Warmer: The future of travel — 7 minutes
Write Travel in 2050 on the board. In pairs, learners discuss:
- Where will people travel?
- How will they travel?
- Who will be able to afford it?
Collect several predictions without correcting the grammar yet.
2. Lead-in: Three off-planet ideas — 8 minutes
In small groups, learners think of three possible developments in off-planet travel or tourism. For example:
- a hotel orbiting Earth;
- holidays on the Moon;
- a low-cost space airline.
Groups briefly present their most interesting idea. Ask the class whether it sounds possible, probable or already planned.
3. Gist reading — 5 minutes
Direct learners to the online article. Give them approximately two minutes to answer:
Why does English have several different ways of talking about the future?
Suggested answer: because speakers express different levels of certainty and base predictions on opinions, evidence, possibilities or existing plans.
4. Grammar noticing — 10 minutes
Learners scan the article and find one example of each target form. They then match the forms to these meanings:
- personal opinion or general prediction;
- present evidence or an existing intention;
- uncertain possibility;
- probable development;
- arranged or officially expected event.
Check answers as a class.
5. Meaning and form check — 10 minutes
Establish the main distinctions:
- will: a prediction or opinion;
- going to: evidence now or a previously decided intention;
- may/might/could: an uncertain possibility;
- likely to: something considered probable;
- set to: something arranged, announced or officially expected.
Emphasise that the forms communicate the speaker’s perspective. The same event can be described differently if the speaker’s evidence or confidence changes.
6. Controlled practice: Gap-fill exercise — 15 minutes
Learners complete the 20-item exercise individually using the phrase bank.
Ask them to:
- read the meaning cue;
- decide what kind of future meaning is required;
- choose the complete phrase;
- check the grammar around the gap.
They then compare answers in pairs before consulting the answer sheet.
7. Feedback and justification — 8 minutes
Do not check only by reading out the answers. Select several examples and ask:
- What indicates that this is only a possibility?
- What evidence or existing decision is mentioned?
- Why is this described as probable?
- What makes this sound like an official announcement?
This keeps the focus on meaning rather than mechanical matching.
8. Semi-controlled speaking: Five future claims — 12 minutes
Give pairs the following topics:
- ticket prices;
- private investment;
- reusable rockets;
- space hotels;
- ordinary families;
- environmental costs;
- employment;
- access to space.
Pairs create five statements, using each of the five future-form groups at least once.
Their partner should respond by either:
- asking for evidence;
- challenging the level of certainty; or
- reformulating the prediction with a different future form.
Example:
Space holidays are likely to become cheaper.
Why do you think that is probable?
Perhaps they might become cheaper, but we do not have enough evidence yet.
9. Freer speaking: Who will benefit? — 12 minutes
Groups discuss:
Should governments invest public money in space tourism?
They should consider the perspectives of:
- a space-tourism company;
- an environmental organisation;
- a wealthy customer;
- an ordinary taxpayer;
- a young person thinking about the future.
Ask groups to use at least four target future forms and three vocabulary items such as affordable, accessible, investment, profitable, wealthy, costs, benefit or inequality.
Finish with a class vote and invite learners to justify their decisions.
10. Exit ticket — 3 minutes
Before leaving, each learner writes:
- one development that might happen;
- one development that is likely to happen;
- one development that is set to happen.
Teacher’s notes
Some future forms can be grammatically possible in the same sentence but communicate different meanings. During freer activities, accept alternative answers when learners can explain the meaning they intend.
Watch particularly for:
- will likely to instead of is likely to;
- may to become instead of may become;
- omission of be in going to, likely to and set to;
- treating set to as a guarantee rather than an announced or strongly expected development;
- using couldn’t when learners mean might not.
The meaning cues in the controlled exercise indicate the intended answer. In speaking practice, however, the objective is informed choice rather than one automatically “correct” future form.
Optional homework
Learners write a 100–120-word forecast entitled Space Tourism in 2050. They should use at least four target future forms and address both commercial opportunities and social inequality.
