Aims: “going to” to express future plans
I am going to + verb
Are you going to ?
Analysis: Not to be confused with “I am going to the cinema.” - ‘going to’ has a verb after it not a noun. It is used to express intentions or plans in the future (near or far), and is perhaps a less firm plan than “I am going to Sri Lanka next week”. You will also need to focus on the form, to make sure it doesn’t get confused with the present continuous (I am going to the cinema). Assume students know the verb ‘to be’ and how it conjugates.
Lead in
1. Tell the students you have some exciting plans tonight, students need to guess what they are. Elicit the 2 or 3 that you have planned and write the verbs up, e.g. visit a friend, watch a movie.
Presentation
2. Elicit target structure like this: “How do I say what my plans are this evening? Tonight, I....” (point to one of the activities on the board). You may get a variety of responses before ‘going to’ remember, if the students don’t know ‘going to’, you will have to tell them.
3. Drill the structure once you have elicited it. Elicit question form and drill this.
4. Write examples of the ‘going to’ and the question form on the board to highlight form. Perhaps use a structure table?
Controlled practice
5. Set up open pair activity, throw a teddy bear around. Students take it in turns to use their own ideas or ones from the board to ask and answer questions. Demonstrate by doing it with a student first.
6. Correct where necessary.
Free practice
7. Give each student a destination for next year’s holiday. Give them a few moments to think of activities they would like to do. In pairs, they interview each other on their plans for next year’s holiday, sightseeing, activities etc. Again, it would be a good idea to do this as a class first with you being asked by the students, this gives students ideas to talk about and also shows what the students have to do.