Purpose: You will practice your speaking and listening skills in Spanish by posing five questions to your classmates about when they think certain things are going to happen and responding to the questions they ask you about the future in Spanish as well. You will use the form ir + a + infinitivo in both your questions and your answers.

Task: This activity has three parts.

1. An original audio post to the discussion board asking questions
2. An audio response to your peers answering their questions and asking a follow-up question
3. A final audio post to those who commented on your original post

Paso 1. Choose five questions from the list below that you want to ask your classmates about. Using a computer or a voice memo function on a smartphone, record your questions in Spanish in a single audio file (if you make mistakes, it is okay and expected; start over from the beginning of the sentence and keep recording) and post this voice recording to the discussion board. Pay close attention to the form of verb ‘ir’ in the question so you can adjust it, if need be, when you answer the question. Others will be able to hear your five questions in Spanish, just as you can hear theirs.

1. ¿Cuándo vas a tomar el próximo examen de español?
2. ¿Cuándo van a bailar tus amigos y tú en el club?
3. ¿Cuándo va a terminar este semestre?
4. ¿Cuándo van a participar ustedes en un juego de básquetbol?
5. ¿Cuándo vas a ir a la biblioteca?
6. ¿Cuándo va a viajar tu mejor amigo(a)?
7. Tus compañeros de clase y tú, ¿cuándo van a memorizar el vocabulario?
8. ¿Cuándo vas a comer en la cafetería?
9. ¿Cuándo van a inventar los científicos un sustituto sostenible (sustainable) para el plástico?

Paso 2. Listen to the questions of two peers in your class. You may take notes as you listen so that you can remember what they asked you, as each person will ask you five questions. Then, record your responses to their questions in Spanish in a single audio file for each peer (if you make mistakes, it is okay and expected; start over from the beginning of the sentence and keep recording). Pay special attention to the form of the verb ir, as some questions are directed at tú while others have a different subject. Hint: if you hear the form van with no identified subject, assume your classmate is talking about you and your friends, ustedes. Ask them about their own opinion about one of the questions they asked you by saying ¿Qué opinas tú? If you need some help with time frames for your responses, there are some ideas listed below.

Paso 3. Just as you have responded to the five questions of two of your peers and asked them ¿Qué opinas tú? to one question, some of your peers have responded to your questions and asked you ¿Qué opinas tú? on one of your questions from your original post. Finish up the conversations by responding to each peer who asked you a follow up question on your original post. Post a recording to each peer in Spanish that answers their questions by using the ir + a + infinitivo construction. If you need some help responding to your peers, there are some ideas listed below.

Criteria: The components of this activity add up to 100%.

Paso 1. 25% of the total grade. Choose five questions from the list for your peers using the ir + a + infinitivo construction. Record a single audio file that includes these five questions and post the file to the discussion board. Each question is worth 5%.

Paso 2. 60% of the total grade. Choose two peers and listen to their questions. After listening to your peers’ questions, you will record an answer in a single audio file to their five questions in Spanish and you will ask ¿Qué opinas tú? as a follow up question to one of the questions they asked you. Each answer is worth 5% and your ¿Qué opinas tú? question to each peer is worth 5%.

Paso 3. 15% of your grade will be earned for responding to your peers on your original post: you are to answer the ¿Qué opinas tú? question that your two peers asked on your original post (7.5% each) using the ir + a + infinitivo construction.

Ejemplo:

Joanna chooses five questions from the list to ask her classmates about what they think is going to happen and when. She records a single audio file in which she asks those five questions and she posts it to the discussion board. She has earned 25% of the total grade for this activity.

She then finds two peers, Alan and Sally, and she listens to the questions they asked in their original post. She takes notes, and then she records an audio file responding to Alan’s questions (asking one follow up ¿Qué opinas tú?) and an audio file responding to Sally’s questions (asking one follow up ¿Qué opinas tú?). She posts these responses under Alan’s and Sally’s original posts, and she has earned 60% of the points for this assignment.

To wrap up, Joanna listens to the responses of her peers. As she listens, she takes notes so that she can be sure to know what the ¿Qué te opinas? follow up question was referring to. She records and posts a final response to each peer in which she answers their follow up question. For one peer, she is surprised at their answer so she says ¿De veras? before sharing her answer to the question. For the other peer, she agrees with their answer so she says Opino lo mismo before sharing her answer to the question. She has earned the remaining 15% of the points for this assignment.

Additional words and phrases useful for this activity:

• Esta tarde – (This afternoon)
• Esta noche – (Tonight)
• Esta semana – (This week)
• Este (lunes/martes/etc.) – This (day of the week)
• Este año – (This year)
• Mañana – (Tomorrow)
• Pasado mañana – (The day after tomorrow)
• La semana que viene – (Next week)
• El próximo año – (Next year)
• Estoy de acuerdo. – (I agree)
• Opino lo mismo. – (I think the same thing.)
• ¿De veras? – (Really?/Seriously?)