How Can Stories Make English Tenses Easier to Teach? Future Tenses – S02E13

How can teachers make English tenses clearer, more memorable and more enjoyable to practise?Gav and Em continue the dramatic story of Gav’s ant infestation to explore ways of talking about the future. If you haven’t heard the beginning, listen to S02E12 first to discover how the ants invaded Gav’s kitchen and started stealing his lettuce.In this second instalment, the ants plan to breach the fridge, build scaffolding and occupy the kitchen. Through the story, Gav and Em demonstrate be going to, will, the future continuous, future perfect and future perfect continuous. They compare plans, predictions with and without evidence, future facts, actions in progress and actions completed by a particular future time.They also examine how will can express spontaneous decisions, promises, offers, requests and even threats.Can one story really help learners review all the main English tenses? Gav and Em finish with a 13-part tense challenge covering present, past, perfect and future forms. It shows why comparing tenses in context can be more useful than practising each one separately.Drawing on their combined 40-plus years in English-language teaching, Gav and Em discuss how teachers can turn a photograph or simple situation into an improvised grammar story. Their main message is reassuring: grammar practice does not have to be dry. Humour, context and imagination can help learners understand why a tense is being used rather than simply memorising its name.The episode concludes with George Chalmers from Anchor Creative Education. George explains how music, drama and movement can help children learn spelling, punctuation and grammar. He then introduces the catchy Irregular Past Tense Verbs Song.If you find the show useful, you can send us a thanks at https://ko-fi.com/howtoenglishpodVisit https://howtoenglishpod.com for practical English-teaching ideas and resources ready to use.Transcription with audio:https://share.descript.com/view/CeDwRgv0O6xResourcesTense examples from Gav’s story:https://www.dropbox.com/s/isweapze59c5hic/Tense%20examples%20from%20Gav%27s%20story.pdf?dl=0Anchor Creative Education:https://anchorcreativeeducation.com/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF3idoSaI6I-2bJcYtq4rvQhttps://www.facebook.com/Anchorgrammarhttps://www.instagram.com/anchor_grammar/Books mentioned:How English Works by Michael Swan and Catherine WalterEnglish File by Christina Latham-Koenig, Clive Oxenden and Paul SeligsonDo ants sleep?https://www.kingstownelawn.com/blog/do-ants-fly-sleep-bite-10-surprising-factsChapters00:00 The ant story and English tenses so far04:19 Why you should listen to Tenses Part 105:27 The ants’ future plans06:20 Be going to for plans07:10 Will for facts and predictions07:45 Predictions with and without evidence08:43 Future perfect with ant scaffolding09:55 Future continuous for actions in progress10:40 Future perfect continuous11:26 A third conditional ending12:28 Will for offers, requests and promises13:38 Will for spontaneous decisions14:18 The 13-tense review challenge17:33 Reviewing the future forms19:30 Grammar books and mixed-tense practice20:42 Making grammar memorable through stories22:07 Do ants sleep?24:24 Introducing Anchor Creative Education26:10 George Chalmers on teaching grammar creatively30:27 Irregular Past Tense Verbs Song