Count your own circles
Both listeners’ pages. Count the circled wills after time words, and the double-inverted questions. Write the two numbers at the top.
Almost nobody in the room got either of them wrong in a written exercise last week. That is the thing worth noticing.
Six pairs. Match each correct sentence to the error it is usually produced as.
Two minutes of a real transcript
Transcribed exactly, errors and all
So my three predictions. The first one is the station and I am very sure about this one. When they will finish the survey, they will start building. It won’t probably take more than two years.
The second, I am less sure. Do you think will the market survive? I think yes, but different. If it will close, the whole street changes.
And the third — what you think about the bypass? I think it will never built. They promise since I am a child.
Four questions about the transcript. It is a good three predictions with five specific problems.
1. When they will finish the survey… What is wrong?
2. Do you think will the market survive? — how many questions are in that sentence?
3. It will never built. What is missing?
4. They promise since I am a child. What has gone wrong?
Two rules, and why they survive
An honest finding. Every student in this room can do both of these rules on paper. Almost every student in this room broke both of them out loud last lesson.
That is not forgetting. Word order is the first thing that goes when attention moves to content, because word order is exactly what your first language is quietly supplying while you think about what to say.
The fix is not more rules. It is learning two shapes as whole chunks, so they arrive assembled: when-I-get-home and do-you-think-it-will.
The two families, and what fixes each
| Family | Looks like | The chunk to learn |
|---|---|---|
will after a time word | when I get… · if it rains… · until you finish… · as soon as she arrives… | |
| Double inversion | Do you think it will… · Do you know whether they will… | |
| No auxiliary | What do you think will… · Why do you think… | |
| Adverb on the wrong side | probably won’t · definitely won’t · will probably · will definitely | |
| Modal plus to | No modal ever takes to | |
| Dropped subject | there will be… · it will be… |
The transcript from the input, repaired. One to four words per gap.
The first one is the station, and I am very sure. When they the survey, they will start building. It take more than two years. The second, I am less sure. the market will survive? I think it will, but in a different form. If it , the whole street changes. And the third — about the bypass? I do not think it built.
Eight sentences. Fix each, and write which of the six families it belongs to.
1. As soon as she will arrive, we will start.
2. I will wait until you will be ready.
3. Do you know whether will they publish it?
4. When do you think will the work start?
5. Why you think the rents will fall?
6. They definitely will not agree to it.
7. It may to happen next year.
8. Will be a lot of traffic on Friday.
Until the chunks arrive assembled
Put the parts in order to make one correctly formed question with a time clause inside it.
Ten sentences from three-minute turns. One error each, from any of the six families.
1. If it will be sunny, we will walk.
2. Do you think will the council listen?
3. It won’t definitely happen this year.
4. What you think about the new plan?
5. She might to be right about that.
6. Will be difficult to find a flat.
7. Before I will go, I will send the numbers.
8. Do you know if will they open on Sunday?
9. The market probably will not survive.
10. When the results will come, we will decide.
One to four words per gap. Half questions, half answers.
— the depot will open next year? — If the funding through, yes. It open in the spring. — And the old buses? — They go to another town, or they be scrapped. Nobody has decided. — So when we will know? — As soon as the council .
Be the editor
Task card · Pairs · Editing then speaking
Your partner’s listener page from Lesson 5 — the circled wills and the double-inverted questions. You are their editor.
Take four of the marked sentences, repair them out loud, and name the family each one belongs to.
- Name the family before you give the correction. That is a time clause. That is a double inversion.
- At least one of your four must be a question, and one a time clause.
- Have your partner say the repaired version back, twice, at conversational speed.
- If they can defend the original, they win and you move on.
Then, thirty seconds each, no notes. Say one prediction about your own week that contains a time clause and one adverb. Your partner repeats it back with the adverb moved to the wrong side, and you correct them.
The six, one more time
Six sentences, one per family. Fix each and name it.
1. When I will see the plans, I will tell you.
2. Do you think will they finish it?
3. Why you think it will fail?
4. It won’t probably be ready.
5. They may to change the route.
6. Will be a meeting on Thursday.
Two chunks to carry
Three questions.
1. Why do these errors survive when you can do them on paper?
2. Which is right?
3. I’ll wait until you ___ .
Before next lesson. Write your three predictions out in full, and underline every time word and every modal. Bring it on paper.
Next lesson you cut it to 180 words. Two lessons after that, A2 is finished.