Tenses - Future Continuous

What will you be doing this evening, Dr Spooner?

I’ll be beading a rook.

Eh?

I’ll be reading a book, old chap.

Statement of form

Subject + will + be +verb_ing

Students need to know

An action in progress at a time in the future.

Damian: "Don't call me at 2am after I've been to the club with the lads! You know what I'll be doing!!"

Wayne: "Sleeping?”

Damian: "Yep."

Note this man-about-town expects to start sleeping before any call comes in, and to be sleeping when it does. That's why he uses the tense.

Giving the impression of calm normality.

"We'll be flying at 30,000 feet, and as the co-pilot is feeling a bit delicate this morning, we'll be avoiding any turbulence."

In this example the future time is once the plane is in the air.

Prelude to asking for a favour

We commonly use this tense as a way into getting something out of someone:

A: Will you be seeing Lawrence later?

B: I suppose so.

A: Great. Could you tell him his sprouts won first prize at the village Fete?

A: If I must.

Students struggle with

Having a different tense for "in progress at a certain time.”

Identifying when to casually make out that a future event is “in the normal course of events.”

The relatively complex form, which requires contraction of subject and “will” when pronounced

Referring to the future is a minefield for any student at the best of times.

Generative situation

Class Plans. Decide on a future time, say 8 o’clock that evening. Ask students to think about that time. Get them to think about what they usually do in the evening, and if this day is any different. Tell them what you’ll be doing at that time.

Ask them all individually, “What will you be doing at eight o’clock this evening?”

Get the students to remember all the replies as they come up. Accept any form of reply, as long as it shows the student understood the question. Get students to remember what everybody said, and write up their ideas on the board in note form:

Mario           work

Marcella       watch tv

Ming            talk to mum in China.

From these, elicit the some full sentences:

“Mario will be working.” Etc.

Fun practice

For an action in progress at a future time

Feeble excuses. Students work in two groups. They think of excuses for avoiding a drink with an unpopular friend. In the same groups, they think of how to make the suggested social occasion as enticing as possible. Pair up students from the groups and they take turns to role play:

“Hey, next Wednesday, how about a drink in that brilliant new club?”

“Sorry, I’d love to, but I’ll be suturing my labrador.” etc.

For calm normality:

Busy executives trying to arrange a meeting, whilst competing to sound as nonchalant as possible about their extravagant lifestyles:

“Tuesday morning?” “Sorry, I’ll be hang-gliding. Tuesday afternoon?” “No good, I’m afraid, I’ll be collecting an award…”

Laid-back rescue effort. SS role-play an interview between reporter and head of fire crew or police at the scene of a disaster of some kind. Students prepare a dialogue involving lots of actions the fire crew will be taking:

Reporter: “What are you going to do, Chief?”

Fire chief: “We’ll be assessing the situation.”

Reporter: “And then?”

Fire Chief: “We’ll be rescuing the people from the fire.”

Reporter: “Shouldn’t you do that quickly?”

Fire Chief: “Yes. We’ll be doing it quickly.” etc.