[Eric]

to introduce the future i first start by eliciting the words "today", "yesterday" and "tomorrow".

then write past, present and future above those words.

once you have those on the board, i then write the year (ie. 2006) under the present column and elicit what goes under the past and future column. then continue to write words under the present column and have them give you the past and future version of that word. use words such as months, days, times, etc...

after this, they should have a general idea of what the future is. then, write a sentence under the present column like 'I study English'. Then elicit the past tense (if you have studied the past tense already, otherwise skip the past tense column for this part) I studied English. And then elicit the future, 'I will study English'.

Do a few more sentences and then start asking students, "What will you do in/on (word from future column)?" they should then be able to answer the question.

at this point most of your students will understand what you mean by 'will'. if some of your students still don't understand, the ones who do can explain it to them.

i like to use survey type activities to practice 'will'. have students go around asking each other what they will do tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, in 20 years...