What will life be like in 20, 50 or 100 years? Some ideas that once sounded like science fiction, from meat grown in a lab to brain implants, pig organs in human bodies and astronauts flying around the Moon, are already here. This lesson looks at how fast the future is arriving and gets students talking about which inventions they would welcome and which predictions they believe. This B2 version looks at recent breakthroughs and bold predictions, with vocabulary and idioms for talking about the future (far-fetched, cutting-edge, time will tell, in the long run).
Level: B2 · Time: 45 to 90 minutes. Pick the activities that suit your class. They work in almost any order.
Lesson Activities
- Warmer: What’s in the Dish? – Reveal the picture tile by tile. What is it? Where do you think it came from? (Answer: the world’s first lab-grown burger, made from cow cells in 2013.)
- Vocabulary: Pre-teach the Key Words – Match 10 words and phrases from the article to their meanings before reading (breakthrough, far-fetched, milestone, cutting-edge, sceptical, time will tell…).
- Reading: Will We Live Forever? – An article with 12 gaps and audio. Choose without a word bank or with a word bank for extra support.
- Vocabulary and Ideas: Already Here or Science Fiction? – Students sort 14 inventions into things that already exist and things that are still science fiction. Works well before reading (to predict) or after (to review).
- Discussion: The Future – 12 discussion questions on optimism, brain implants, lab-grown meat, living for 1,000 years, work and time travel.
- Speaking: Ranking – Which future invention would you want first? Students rank nine, from a car that drives itself to a time machine, then compare with a partner.
Teacher Tips
- For a shorter lesson, use the warmer, the reading and the discussion cards.
- The reading has audio. Play it after students have tried the gaps, so they can listen and check their answers, or use it as a listening task with stronger groups.
- Language focus: language for making and doubting predictions (my best guess is…, in the long run…, I’m sceptical about…, that sounds far-fetched, time will tell). Ask students to make three predictions about their own life or job and rate how likely they are.
- Business English classes: ask which inventions in the lesson could change their industry, and how companies should prepare.
- Follow-up: students write a short “letter to myself in 2046” with predictions about their life, work and the world.
Teaching a lower-level group? Try the A2 version of this lesson.
Photo: World Economic Forum, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.