City Of The Future

Setup

Ideally, students complete this activity in pairs. In this case, you need an A3 piece of paper for each pair.

Alternatively, students can complete this activity individually on A4 size paper/notebooks.

Project

1. Elicit things that will be different in the city of the future and write them on the board. For example, cars, public transport, buildings, entertainment etc.
2. Students draw a picture of their vision of the city of the future.
3. They then write sentences to describe their city, using the target language. With A3 paper these sentences can be on the picture itself (using arrows, bubbles etc.), but with A4 paper they may be written separately.
4. The students present their city to the class, describing their vision with the target language. You could display the finished pictures as posters.

Target Language

Due to the artistic element involved, the City Of The Future ESL project is usually best suited to kids classes. However, it could definitely work with the right adult class too.

The grammar required means it is suitable for beginner or low intermediate students. Beginners may limit their sentences to the future simple with will. Intermediate students should however use language for future predictions too (e.g. will probably, might, could etc.).

You can also do this project as part of a topic on technology. Students could use related vocabulary (e.g. drones, self-driving cars) and discuss when they think their predictions will come true.

For a similar project involving future predictions, try Home Of The Future.