Level:  High Beginning and Up
Pair with the Song: “I Can See Clearly Now” (Johnny Nash, 1972)
Recommended Videos: the audio-only video by Johnny Nash; the official music video by Johnny Nash (a colorized version of an original black-and-white video); the official video by Jimmy Cliff; the 2020 video by 12 international musicians

In informal speech, gonna is often used instead of going to in future-tense sentences. (It is important to tell students that gonna is not used in writing; it is the way going to is pronounced. It is also important to stress that gonna is substituted for going to in future-tense sentences only; they can’t say I’m gonna the park now. For these reasons, this apparently simple exercise may not be appropriate for lower levels.) The song “I Can See Clearly Now” repeats the refrain It’s gonna be a bright sunshiny day many times. In the activity below, students practice using gonna when talking about the weather forecast. Permission is granted to reproduce for classroom use.

If your students are from many countries, you could follow up on the worksheet by asking them to check the weather forecast for their native city and share the forecast with the class. They share the forecast in this format: “Tomorrow in _____________ it’s gonna be _____________.”

gonna activity.docx          gonna activity.pdf      gonna activity (webpage)

Preview:

Future with Gonna: Talking About the Weather

1. Read the two conversations under the picture.

Person 1: What’s the weather going to be like¹ tomorrow?
Person 2: It’s going to be sunny.

Person 1: What’s the weather gonna be like tomorrow?
Person 2: It’s gonna be sunny.

Both conversations are about the future. The first conversation uses going to + a verb in the simple form (be). The second conversation uses gonna + a verb in the simple form (be). It is OK to use gonna in conversations with family and friends.

2. With a partner, practice using gonna to talk about the weather forecast. Read the conversation below aloud with a partner five times. Each time, complete your sentence with different words. Person 1 chooses words from the first column. Person 2 chooses words from the second column.

Person 1: What’s the weather gonna be like ________________________?
Person 2: It’s gonna be ________________________.

¹The word like is sometimes used when asking someone to describe something. For example: What’s Barcelona like? What’s your new job like? What’s their house like?

Copyright © 2016 Sandra Heyer. All rights reserved. Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use.
Image: Copyright © Nvnkarthik | Dreamstime. Reprinted with permission.