Helping Lower-intermediate Learners with Understanding and Using a Range of Future Forms

Introduction

My recent teaching experience has shown that there is an over use of ‘will’ by Moroccan and Chinese learners to discuss their future plans, and this is probably due to the interference of English as a foreign language with their mother tongue. An obvious example of this is English which has different verb forms to refer to the future unlike Arabic which uses a ‘single future tense’. Grammatically, will and be going to can be used with base verbs and the present progressive form with be + -ing verb. Hence, choosing an appropriate form to talk about plans in the future is something perplexing for learners.

With respect to what the aforementioned evidence shows, I have become motivated to write this assignment as a reply to the frustrating fact of our lower-intermediate learners who are unable to use their knowledge in a real communicative situation knowing that they are supposed to be linguistically competent. It is, indeed, an attempt to look at some reasons that justify students’ inefficient use of the future forms e. g. will, going-to, present progressive and present simple; and project the most possible reasons for this issue, suggesting some useful solutions to cope with it.

Analysis

Time of the action, event, or state of affairs which constitutes the sentence that is a key element in the utterance time are all critical categories of the tense class. A supplemental linguistic concept is time which theoretically differs from present and future time. In contrast, tense is a linguistic class, which differs present from past and, between time and tense, identity doesn’t take place. Specifically, non-linguistic time and linguistic tense are only very ambiguously and comparatively associated.

Meaning /Use The most essential future construction is future with SHALL/WILL + bare infinitive (Leech G 1987: 58). In typical BrE, while SHALL is restricted to the 1st person, WILL can be used with all persons.

It is used:

• to make a prediction about the future or a factual statement. Tonight´s TV show will be very interesting.
• to make formal announcements related to future plans. The king’s son will move into a higher position in the parliament tomorrow.
• to talk about weather forecast. Tomorrow's weather will be foggy and rainy.
• to talk about intentions and attitudes linked to other people, shall and will are also used; they are frequently used in promises and threats, requests and offers. “You can take it for €40. “Ok, I’ll buy it “
• to express hopes, expectations, thoughts related to the future. It is used after verbs like assume, believe, doubt, expect, hope, suppose, think, be sure/afraid and with adverbs like perhaps, possibly, probably, definitely e. g. Do you think she'll buy the books?
• in condition or time clauses sentences: If he fails the test, he ‘won’t receive a gift from his dad.
• to express an intention when the decision is made at the time of speaking: You will wash the dishes when you come home from school.

The BE GOING TO + infinitive future Meaning/Use It is used:

• for intention and before he time of speaking, the speaker usually has the intention. Clearly, going to often echoes the idea of intention, of a decision that has already been made. I´m going to take an exam tomorrow.
• for making a prediction relying on a current evidence. The sun is going up. It's not going to be dark in an hour.

Present Progressive Meaning/Use

• The present progressive is used to define an arrangement for the future, namely, plans that have been already made. Either a person or people stand as the subject of a sentence and not a thing. I´m giving a speech for the school tomorrow.

Present Simple Meaning/Use To indicate the future, the present simple is used to:

• indicate the future in a condition and time clauses after if, unless, when, as soon as, until, before and after: everything, anything, whatever We´ll call you when we arrive home.
• echo events in the future in which a fixed timetable holds a part e. g. travel timetable, a conference itinerary, some organized events, an official trip by a course assessor. You spend the third night of the trip in a hotel in Turkey.

Form

1. In formal speaking and writing, the full form of will is used. This also includes informal speech after nouns and noun phrases (as opposed to pronouns). In affirmative sentences, I’ll is used after pronouns (e. g. she’ll; we’ll) and question words (e. g. when’ll; who’ll) in informal speaking and.
2. Be + going to + base infinitive is made as follow. It is also necessary to think of this as the present continuous form of go + the full infinitive.
3. The present progressive (also called the present continuous) is formed with a present tense form of to be (am, ‘m, is, ‘s, or are, ‘re). and an -ing verb form.

Problem #1 Over- Generalizing and Simplifying (the over use of “will”)

The use of “will” has become a routine for many students, especially lower-intermediate who find it an easy way (support mechanism) to handle conversations with multiple skills. However, this use doesn’t allow them to experience the deep use future plans aspects, intentions and schedules.

This issue undermines their speaking ability which turns them into beginner speakers without considering their high-level speaking fluency.

Problem #2 Contractions & Pronunciation for “will”

The unusual and uncomfortable way of conducting pronunciation of contractions have been two remarkable facts for making the use of “will” tricky. English learners encounter significant difficulties when they try to pronounce and use contractions the way they learn them in school. Chinese learners who never points out that native speakers (at least Americans) alter these contractions in a distinct way which differs totally from how they learnt to pronounce them.

Due to some challenges with pronunciation, English learners disregard the use of “will” with contractions, while native speakers do. E. g. Americans don’t say “I’ll call you / aɪl kɔːl juː/, ” they rather say “all-call-you / ɔːl-kɔːl-juː/”. An over use of “going-to” might occur as well:A: I’m sorry Nick isn’t in his office this Friday. B: Don’t worry, I’m going to call him tomorrow then. (instead of I’ll call him…. . )Further, “we’ll talk later / wiːl tɔːk ˈleɪtə/” is pronounced “Will talk lader. / wɪl tɔːk ˈleɪdə/”. For learners, it is clear that the subject pronoun “we” is dropped, which is not true (we will=we’ll, pronounced will). However, it’s not written this way.

Problem #3 Time Conjunctions

The use of “will” instead of a present tense after time conjunctions has become a tendency by lower-intermediate Moroccan and Pakistani learners e. g. they’ll give you a call when she’ll be back. The fact that Chinese learners have been strongly impacted by how rules are formulated in their language makes them transform them naturally into English even if they have been already introduced to how to deal correctly with rules of the future. The current evidence in may lessons shows that the forms are almost neglected in a given communicative context. Yet, non-native speakers might be penalized if they don’t adhere to these rules in exams, knowing that “will” is used after time conjunctions by native speakers in many occasions.

Problem #4 Word order

Word order holds a momentous part in English than in any other foreign languages. Producing sentences that sound awkward is a habit by Moroccan students in that the words order in the native’s ear is wrong.

Syntactically, for English statements, the main pattern is: Subject-Verb-Object (s)-Place-Time. Thus, when this pattern changes, the English sentence becomes senseless with a different meaning. For instance, we get a question as part of the verb comes before the subject when it moves e. g. "Kerstine will be home at five" becomes "Will Kerstine be home at five?". Swapping the time phrase with the place word will result in a clear sentence that native speakers wouldn’t usually say e. g. "Kerstine will be at five home". With word order, problems can occur in question forms as well e. g. “when he will be back?’ “why he won’t come with her?”.

Solution

Aim: To clear up the doubt between “will” and “going-to” using deep-end approach.

Procedure: Teacher creates situations in which there is necessity for students to use forms of the future e. g. talking about anticipated weekend/vacations/marathon/Halloween party etc. Unlike the first suggestion, the teacher can choose a future theme and experiment with an activity on Community Language Learning. The task aims to show how students explore futurity through trying feasible means, e. g. future time adverbial with present tense (Next Saturday, I visit my nephew) or will (Tomorrow, she will go out with her friends…. ). Recasting correction is provided by the teacher throughout.

Evaluation: An evidence whether the student uses the forms in a typical way or not is missing e. g. a student might produce something like: “Tomorrow, he will go shopping”. It might be difficult to know if the decision is planned or unplanned if any other information is missing. However, the distinction between “will” and “going-to” becomes clear once we go through asking questions.

Example:

Student: Next Sunday I’ll travel to NYC.

Teacher: Oh! You mean, you’ve just decided?

Student: No, I always travel to NYC in December for Christmas.

Teacher: Ah, so you’re going to travel this December, too?

Solution #2

Aim: To enable learners to cut down on their accent, produce proper contractions and get familiar with sentences rhythm, connecting words together when speaking.

Procedure: Select a song with a focus on lines that have future verbs. This includes typing words, excluding all future forms. The alternative way is to provide the verb simple form. A checking stage for answers would include either the teacher checking the song with the whole class or students can go over it on their own. Stress the use of either to be +-ing or will + simple form to keep the idea of prediction. As a follow-up practice to help learners utter an indistinct rhythm of the song, playing the chorus lines simultaneously can be more efficient. Through recalling the tune of the song, students can then take use strips of paper to arrange the lines of the song. More inventive groups can provide their own version of words to adjust to the tune.

Evaluation: While misunderstanding among learners arises that contractions should be learned in a fixed way, the experiential element shows that tune in with music helps them memorize patterns of grammar and use it appropriately and meaningfully in everyday conversation.

Solution #3

Aim: To practice time conjunctions through exploring the use of promises in distinct specific contexts.

Procedure: Within a family context, students all act as family members in which everyone is required to agree to do something. For this task set-up, each group of 6-8 receives set of role cards. For cards given, there are two separate colors (green and red). Role cards for red cards Vs time clauses conjunctions that students write on the green cards. Class is divided into two teams. To produce an appropriate sentence using promises, students take one green card and two red e. g. I promise that I will do my homework before I go to bed; I swear I will feed the cat on time; I swear I won’t hurt you again…etc.

Evaluation: The focal point of this game is to direct students’ attention to the target language enforced i. e. promising to do something only if one is promised something else in return.

Solution #4

Aim: To formulate a grammatically precise question by players taking turns to add one word e. g. Why…; Player 2: Why will…; Player 3: Why will Ayoub…, etc.

Procedure: Similar to featuring students’ names through class plan, choose a number 2 or 3 for a very small class. Each participant’s life is represented by 2. It becomes a challenge for the previous participant if a participant says “impossible” as they feel that they unable and hopeless to go on with the sentence. Losing a life is a common thing among participants in this game. The challenger participant loses a life in case the previous participant adds a word which is grammatically correct, same thing for the previous participant who loses a life too in case they can’t do so. Losing a life can also happen to participants who adds grammatically incorrect words.

Evaluation: The point is keeping learners remain observant with word order either in a question or sentence. For the sake of English communication, the progression of words is crucial in that it influences what learners attempt to say in terms of meaning and also understanding.