Lesson
Speculating –Future plans- Topics: You/Work and Study/Future
Objective
In part 1 of the IELTS test get ready for the examiner to ask questions about you. They may ask you about your future – in these cases you may need to speculate. When answering part 1 questions remember to keep your answers short and direct, using full sentences and trying to include some words from the question in your answer.
Language focus: Speculating
When we want to say what we think will happen in the future in English, we can either use will followed by the verb without to -
· “What do you think will happen next year?”
· “There won’t be a rise in house prices next year.”
- or going to followed by the verb
· “Next week is going to be very busy, I think.”
· ""He isn’t going to win the election."
When speculating we can use will and going to and change the strength of our statements by using adverbs:
· I’m fairly sure I will (weak)
· I’m pretty sure I’m not going to (weak)
· I’m reasonably certain I’m going to (average)
· I’m absolutely certain I won’t (strong)
· I’m definitely going to (strong)
Q1. Do you want to study abroad?
Yes Answer
Yes, definitely. That’s why I’m taking the test. I hope I'll be able to study for my masters’ degree in a British University; I’ll have to wait and see what happens.
No answer
No. I’d thought about studying abroad previously but the economy is improving back home so I think I’ll have a better chance of getting a job back there.
Q2. When do you think you will finish your studies?
Answer:
I haven’t decided yet.I reckon it’ll be a few more months before I’ve finished here, then I’m going to have to decide what to do next. So maybe 6 months,possibly.
Q3. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Vocabulary and phrases
will probably, likelihood, I would like to imagine, I think that’ll happen, It’s difficult to say
Answer:
____________. I guess, if I get married then I ________settle down in the UK and start a family but the _______of that isn’t too great. _______that I’m in a management position at work.__________ within 5 years.
Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHIGTUTG9HA&feature=related
In this video we will see an IELTS candidate speculating about her future.
Interviewer: What will you do when you finish?
Sujatha: Well I’m thinking of going into management of landscapes or maybe parks or botanical gardens. I’m more interested in the management side because I wouldn’t have to put in a lot of physical labour into it and just manage people and use my knowledge in the theory instead.
So how well did Sujatha do?
· ‘I’m thinking of going into’
Here Sujatha makes it clear that she is still considering what she is going to do and is not certain
· ‘I wouldn’t have to’
Sujatha is able to hypothesise – she says wouldn’t rather than won’t to speculate about the future as she is not 100% certain of the fact but has some knowledge of it.
· ‘management of landscapes’
This sounds a little unnatural she would be better saying landscape management
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