Let’s talk about the future in English
(predictions). In this very specific case, I would like to share an activity I have
used in my lessons about future possibility (will, won’t, may, might, and
could).
First of all, I wrote “Life in
the future” and “home” on the board. After that, I asked how they
think houses will be in the future. Then they talked, firstly in pairs, about
what their thoughts are (were) and then shared them with the whole group.
We all read a text about the
future called “What Does the Future Hold?”
We
spoke to Professor John Williams, futurologist, for his expert predications on
life in the next few decades.
Well,
the first thing to say is that I don’t believe we’re all going to be living in
treehouses and walking or cycling everywhere. We are going to have to make
changes though.
Unfortunately,
it looks quite likely that the climate may change significantly, with hotter
summers, colder winters and more flooding. At the same time, fuel for heating
or air conditioning will probably become much more expensive. For these
reasons, our houses will definitely have to become much better insulated.
People are already building so-called ‘passive houses,’ which have little or no
central heating at all, relying on the body heat of the people who live there.
Homes
probably won’t be as big, and so we will need more adaptable furniture, such as
sofa-beds, and when we are not using our furniture we will be able to fold it
away into wall cabinets. Houses could have movable walls so that the same space
can be arranged in different ways. Tabletops may double as computer screens or
DVD players.
New
technology will make us more self-sufficient. Kitchens may have fish tanks
which, as well as providing fish to eat, also produce fresh vegetables. The
plants will provide oxygen for the fish. These tanks will be powered by
household waste and create energy, which can then be used to run the family car
– though we might not all have cars!
Water
will definitely be more expensive and the home of the future will probably be
designed to use much less. Washing machines and dishwashers might use sound
wave to shake dirt off. We may even take showers using sound waves. What water
we do use will be recycled and used again round the house and private swimming
pools will become a thing of the past.
We
will also certainly have more robots in our homes, though they won’t look like
the ones in films. There will probably be small robots designed to clean the
fridge or open the curtains. Clever fridges will tell us when food is about to
go out of date and even suggest recipes, and we will be able to communicate
with our homes by mobile phone wherever we are.
After reading it, I asked them
this quite simple question:
Which of the
predictions in the article do you think are likely to happen? Why?
I
had to explain the meaning of “likely” to some of them.*
Students all talked about it
very enthusiastically and then, they were asked to listen to a listening
activity and tick the predictions they think are likely to happen and cross those ones they think are unlikely to happen.
We obviously had to observe the
uses of will and
won’t. Well, in case you are not aware of
their uses, we use will and
won’t + an
adverb to say how likely something is in the future. However, the positions of will and won’t will
certainly vary.
Will comes before the adverb as in “I’ll
definitely go” or “I’ll probably stay”. Notice that both sentences are
affirmative (positive) sentences.
Won’t, on the other hand, comes after the adverb as in “I certainly won’t
go” or “I probably won’t stay”.
Well, what happens if you’re not
certain about something? In this case, we should use may (may not), might (might
not), or could (but not “couldn’t” for possibility in the future).
Julia may meet us later
for a drink or two.
The store might not be open.
Having said and done all above,
we started a very good activity in which we had to talk and write about the
past (25 years ago).
Students were asked to look at
the sentences about twenty-five years ago and change them so that they would make
predictions about the next twenty-five years.
SENTENCES:
Twenty-five years ago…
Most people had cars.
In the next twenty-five years…
There will probably be fewer
cars because of the price of fuel.
Twenty-five years ago…
People wrote more
letters.
In the next twenty-five years…
(Students’ answers)
Twenty-five years ago…
Most people watched
videos rather than DVDs.
In the next twenty-five years…
(Students’ answers)
Twenty-five years ago…
People didn’t worry
about wasting water.
In the next twenty-five years…
(Students’ answers)
Twenty-five years ago…
Most people didn’t have
mobile phones.
In the next twenty-five years…
(Students’ answers)
Twenty-five years ago…
People didn’t buy
organic food.
In the next twenty-five years…
(Students’ answers)
We checked all the
possibilities and then finished this activity by asking students about their
plans for the next ten years (2014-2024). They were supposed to use will, may, might, could, and the negative forms if necessary.
In the end of the lesson, learners
were asked to write two predictions for people in the classroom. They were
told to not write people’s names. Having finished that, they gave me back the pieces
of papers I had given them and we read the predictions trying to guess who the
predictions were about.
If you liked this activity,
share it. It was made to provide teachers with more options. Doing that,
everyone will benefit from it.
This activity has been
developed by Bruno Coriolano as part of his lesson plan. In case you want to
download it, click
here.
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