Most coursebooks present "going to" and "will" in the same unit and let students treat them as free variants, which produces a class that can conjugate both but has no idea which one to actually use in a real sentence. The fix is teaching them as answers to two different questions, not as two grammar forms for the same idea.
1. Teach going to first, tied to a decision already made
"Going to" describes a plan or intention that exists before you speak — the decision is already made. Introduce it with a concrete anchor: show a students' weekend plan written on a calendar and ask "What's she going to do on Saturday?" This keeps "going to" tied to visible evidence (a plan, a calendar, a ticket already bought), which is the actual condition for using it correctly.
2. Introduce will only for decisions made at the moment of speaking
Once "going to" is solid, contrast it directly with "will" for spontaneous decisions and predictions without evidence. A simple classroom trick: mime "forgetting" something ("Oh, I don't have a pen!") and have a student respond with an offer on the spot — "I'll lend you mine." That's the exact moment "will" is for; it can't be planned in advance, which is why practicing it as an isolated form usually fails.
3. Drill the "be" that students drop in going to
"I going to visit my grandmother" (missing "am") is the single most common error with this structure, because in fast speech the "am"/"is"/"are" nearly disappears. Make students say the full form slowly at first — "I am going to," "she is going to" — before allowing the natural contraction, so the underlying structure isn't lost.
Common mistakes and how to catch them
- Dropped "be": "They going to travel next year." — drill the full form (subject + am/is/are + going to) before contractions.
- Will for a pre-made plan: "I will go to the dentist tomorrow" when the appointment was booked last week — should be "I'm going to go." Point back to the evidence test: is there proof of a decision already made?
- Going to for a spontaneous offer: "Wait, I'm going to help you!" reacting to something just seen — should be "I'll help you." This is the mirror-image mistake and worth drilling separately, not assumed to fix itself once the first mistake is corrected.
A 40-45 minute lesson shape that works
- 5 min — Warm-up: ask 2-3 students about their plans for the weekend, writing one answer on the board with "going to."
- 10 min — Present "going to" with a calendar/planner visual, drilling the full form before contractions.
- 10 min — Controlled practice with "going to": complete-the-sentence and picture-based exercises.
- 10 min — Present "will" via the spontaneous-decision mime activity, contrasting directly with "going to."
- 10 min — Freer practice: students write 3 weekend plans (going to) and respond to 2 surprise situations with an offer (will).
Free worksheets for this lesson
These printable PDFs follow the same progression above — "going to" first, then "will" as a separate contrast:
- Going To – Grammar (A1) — the form, spelling of the "be" verb, and basic sentence structure.
- Going To – Practice (A1) — controlled practice across affirmative, negative and question forms.
- Going To – Vocabulary (A1) — plan-related vocabulary to support the writing stage.
- Going To – Reading (A1) — receptive practice in a short text about someone's plans.
- Going To – Writing (A1) — freer production writing about the student's own plans.
- Future Simple Tense – Grammar Practice (A2) — "will" for predictions and spontaneous decisions, once "going to" is solid.
- The Future Awaits – Reading (A2) — a reading text mixing predictions with "will."
- My Future Plans – Writing (A2) — a writing task to contrast both forms once each is secure.
Browse the full set of grammar worksheets or filter by A1 and A2 level.