Future Perfect Simple and Future Perfect Continuous Lead in and discussion

Notes:

• Before embarking on the future perfect simple and the future perfect continuous, get them to revise the present perfect and the present perfect continuous. This not only gets them to revise the tense but also gets them thinking along the lines of how the world will change in the future which will be the task where they have to use the target grammar.

• I've made a worksheet and when I have time to work out how to put attachments on this thing I will include it, for the moment I will describe it.

• I've been working on this lesson plan for 3 hours now, after waking up from my nap that I took when I arrived home from work exhausted. One of my teen students told me: teaching is easy, you just have to photocopy ; )

Before handing out the worksheet, brainstorm all the new technology that has appeared in the last 10 years.

• Worksheet: They will discuss these things in groups of three.

1) How has the world changed in the last 20 years ?

Discuss the items in the pictures and anything else you can think of that has changed, using the present perfect:

It has changed….
We have stopped ..ing ….
She has started wearing…
He/she/ithas become

(the pictures show an 80's television, an 80's mobile, computer, a picture of Madonna wearing a ridiculous hat and a group of friends in a bar. Next to it is a picture of a modern TV, mobile, PDA, Madonna now and a conversation on msn.)

• This is a teens class, maybe with adults we could include some political topics like the Cold War and compare it to the so-called "war against terrorism".
• With adults there are so many more possibilities as they have lived for at least 2 decades, teens are still a bit young to notice that the world is changing.

After this they should discuss the following questions:

2) How has your life changed in the last 10 years?

How has your style of clothes and hair changed in the last 10 years?
How has your relationship with your parents changed? Do you have more freedom now?
Has your personality changed?
How has your taste in music changed?
Do you still have the same friends as you did when you were 5 or has this changed?

What things haven’t changed? What things have you been doing since you were little?
How long have you been doing your hobbies? How long have you known your friends?

Divide the white board down the middle and feedback their answers onto the board on the left had side. Make sure that they are in neat lines so that later on the right, you can put their future predictions adjacently.

e.g. Mobile phones have become smaller.
e.g. I have been playing the guitar for 8 years.
___________________________________________
Moving on to the future. Before giving out these questions for discussion give a couple of examples, adjacent and corresponding to their ideas that you will have put on the board:


e.g. Mobile phones have become smaller. ---- By the year 2020 mobile phones will have become microscopic
e.g. I have been playing the guitar for 8 years. ------ By the year 2020 I will have been playing the guitar for 21 years.

• The problem with teaching this language is that we don't always use it in this context and it's hard to avoid being unnatural, for example I had written "mobile phones will be microscope, then changed it to will have become for the purpose of the exericse".
• This is language that isn't used very often so it's quite difficult to provoke conversation using it.

Now think about the year 2020.

How will technology have changed?
How will mobile phones/fashion/television/meeting friends have changed?
Imagine what new gadgets will have been invented.

Now think about your life in the future.

By what year will you have graduated from university?
What work experience will you have already had?

Things that you do now:
How long will you have been practising your favourite sports and hobbies?
How long will you have known your current best friend?
How long will you have been learning English?
What things do you think you will be still interested in?
What other things will you have been doing for a long time?

Now feedback the rest of their ideas onto the board on the right hand side.
If they don't use the form, convert it before you put it up.
Elicit the form from their examples.

WILL + have been + past participle
WILL + have been + - ing

Now move on to the exercises from the worksheet in my previous blog.

________________________________

Afterwards: these are four hour classes and they get tired.

What do you think are the best inventions of this decade? What are the features of these products i.e. why are they good?

In groups think of a brilliant invention that will have been created by the year 2020?
What is the name of your company?

The marketing department for this product wants to start advertising now.

Design a poster for your product, promising that by the year 2020 we will have invented "such and such " and all features that it will have. Draw pictures.