Another area that it can be useful to focus on is thinking about different kinds of grammatical tenses and how we use them in English to speak about certain situations. For example, all three of these tenses are usually used for making detailed and specific plans:
Future Perfect Tense: ‘I will have finished the report by 10:00pm on Tuesday.’
Future Continuous Tense: ‘I will be working on the report for the next two days.’
Future Perfect Continuous Tense: ‘Next month, I will have been working on this project for a year.’
Other examples of key language can include phrases about how certain you are that something will happen:
- I am certain that…
- I am quite sure that…
- It will probably…
- It may not…
- I do not think it is possible that…
Finally, tenses to make reports sound more formal such as the passive voice, or different reporting verbs to make your sentences clearer and more accurate are also useful:
- ‘The reports will have been completed by the end of the month.’
- ‘The report suggests/claims/mentions/illustrates/describes the….’
All of these are great examples of how focusing on practical English in the classroom can help learners to meet specific language goals.