Resource centre - English grammar - Will and going to
Form
Meaning
Pronunciation
Teaching ideas
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Future continuous
Future perfect
Articles
Be used to
Causative Have
Comparatives
Few and Little
First Conditional
Future Continuous
Future Perfect
Get Used To
Have and Have Got
Indirect Questions
Lend and Borrow
Passive
Past Continuous
Past Perfect Continuous
Past Perfect Simple
Past Simple
Present Continuous
Present Perfect Continuous
Present Perfect Simple
Present Simple
Questions
Reflexive Pronouns
Reported Questions
Reported Speech
Reporting Verbs
Say and Tell
Second Conditional
Small and Little
So and Such
Tag Questions
Third Conditional
Too and Enough
Used to
Will and Going to
Wish
Zero Conditional
Affirmative
will + verb
am / is / are + going to + verb
Negative
will not / won't + verb
am / is / are not + going to + verb
(See the phonemic chart for IPA symbols used below)
How do you teach will and going to? Add your idea »
Teaching will: first I show a
picture of a fortune teller and ask students what people usually want to know
about their future, next I elicit from students how a fortune teller predicts
something in the future.
Example: You will marry a very rich man. You will experience a great loss. You
will be rich, etc...
Teaching (be) going to: first I show a picture of a man who won the lottery.
Then I show a picture of a reporter who will interview him. The reporter wants
to know how he will spend his money in the future. I ask students the questions
that a reporter might ask, then elicit how the winner would answer the
questions. Example: "I am going to set up my own business." "I am going to live
in hollywood", etc.
Is all this underlying the
difference between "going to" and "will" not a bit of a hair splitting? Let's
look at the sentence mentioned in the examples above: "I am going to meet
him"... Does "I will meet him" not equally imply that my meeting him was decided
before it was announced? I find it hard to believe that the decision "to meet
him" is being arrived at exactly at the moment the announcement is made and I
find it yet harder to believe that "I will meet him" means that the decision to
do so is not yet arrived at the moment of the announcement. Are my doubts
reasonable? Would be a serious oversimplification if both forms were used
interchangeably? Would our students not be better of and less confused?
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