What are you looking forward to? A lesson plan.

This is a good conversation topic for a English conversation class or English Corner:

Explain what looking forward to means.  (It means we are anticipating some future occurrence or activity that will happen)  (Some students seem to mistaekn think it means hope.)

Ask short-term. 

What are you looking forward to this afternoon?

Do you look forward to English Corner?

What are you looking forward to this weekend.

What do you look forward to every day? (ask Monday, Tuesday,....)

Who do you look forward to seeing?

What do you look forward to you when you are tired?

What do you look forward to after a long day or a long trip away?

When do you look forward to going to work?

Where do you look forward to going on the weekend?

Long-term  What are you looking forward to:

Next Year?

Next season?

Talk about every month of the next year.

What are the Chinese looking forward to?

What do sports fans look forward to?

What do movie fans or music fans look forward to?

What about computer game fans?

What would be the opposite of looking forward to?  Dreading. Being afraid of.

What things do people dread?

What are you dreading about today, this week, this month?

Who do you dread to see?

What are you dreading about next year?

Do you put off the dreadful things that you must do?

How do we feel when the thing we look forward to is not good?   (Disappointed)

How do we feel when the thing we dread is not so bad?  (relieved. Pleasantly surprised.

Ask students for examples of times when they were disappointed and pleasantly surprised.

Optimists versus pessimists

Who looks forward?  Who looks at the ground?

Expectations:  Explain.  Then ask how high we should keep our expectations.