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It was so interesting to find that there are so many different tenses for the future we use without really realizing it! One thing I did notice is that this lesson didn't call out how instead of "I'm going to...(do whatever)" we often, at least in the states, use the casual slang "I'm gonna go to the movies tomorrow", or in question form, "Are you gonna go?" and I wondered if English teachers often teach this to their students.
The future simple tense is formed with the subject + will + the base form of the verb. It's used when talking about future facts, such as, "Next year I will turn 26", for promises, such as "I will take the trash out tonight", for predictions, such as "You will be prosperous this year", for assumptions/speculations, and for spontaneous decisions, such as "I'll go with you to the store". Students often confuse the "going to" future tense with the future simple, so I would teach these together and point out the difference in form and usage. A teaching idea for the study phase would be a worksheet with prompts such as "I lost my soccer game today", and blank spaces for students to fill in what an optimist might say, like "You'll win next time!". An activity for the Activate phase would be for students to write horoscopes or wedding vows.
The future continuous tense is formed with the subject + will + be + verb+ing. It's used when talking about an action that will be in progress at a certain point in the future. For example, "This time next year I will be living in Vietnam." It could also be used to predict the present, such as "My mom will be getting home from work now", for fixed future events or for polite inquiries when you don't want to influence the response. Students typically make errors in missing part of the structure. Teaching ideas would be to pair students up and have one try to ask the other on a date, and the other has to come up with excuses why they won't be available, such as "I will be getting my hair done, I will be going on vacation".
The future perfect is formed with the subject + will + have + past participle. It's used to talk about something that will have been completed by a certain point in time. For example, "When the summer ends, I will have completed my TEFL course." It's a prediction in the future of what will have happened in the past. Students typically confuse the future perfect with the future perfect continuous. When teaching, I would make the distinction of an action being completed before a certain point in the future, versus how long an action will have continued by a certain point in the future. A teaching activity would be to write a diary of what they will have accomplished by the end of the year. and by 5 years from now.
The future perfect continuous is formed with the subject + will + have + been + verb+ing. It's used to talk about an action that will have been in progress up until a certain point in the future. For example, "By the end of the summer, I will have been taking the TEFL course online for 6 months." A good teaching activity would be surveying the class on what they've been doing up until the end of the year.
The "going to" future tense is formed with the subject + verb "to be" in present + going to + base form of verb. It's used when talking about intentions, plans, and predictions. As mentioned before, students often confuse it with the future simple so I would teach these together. It also is often confused with the present continuous so I would be sure to point out that the "going to" future tense is always followed by a verb. Activities could be to have students predict the weather based on evidence, or to plan a party.
The present simple and present continuous are also often used to talk about things that are definite in the future. For example, in the present simple, "I leave at 5 tomorrow". Or, in the present continuous, "She is running for president next year". These will always be followed by a future point in time, to indicate that we are talking about something happening in the future and not in the present. Activities for teaching involve scheduling and time tables.
