Translating ‘Will’ and ‘Be Going To’, to Express Future Tense and Intention

Abstract

‘Be going to’ expresses strong plan while `will’ has an underlying ‘willingness’, however, since both expresses the future, fully differentiating and using the two expressions have always been a challenge for EFL learners. This research aimed to find out whether the translated writing method could provide an effective and alternative way to teach the differences between the two future time expressions, `will’ and ‘be going to’, Grammar quiz and translation tasks were given both with the ‘will’ and `be going to’ expressions. Preliminary data showed that the test takers were able to understand the `will’ quiz and the task better than the `be going to’ However, correlation and regression analysis revealed that the `will’ expression did not yield any significant findings. This shows that perhaps the grammar drills were not able to fully measure the test takers full acquisition or usage of the future expression overall. The finding reveals that perhaps the translation writing method, as this method utilize diverse use and meanings of the future. could be more effective in teaching the future time expressions.