Talk a Lot

General Information

Plan of all Talk a Lot Units and Activities For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www.englishbanana.com now!

Talk a Lot Elementary © English Banana.com
1.1

This page shows all of the units and activities from the first three Talk a Lot Elementary books.
A
3
indicates that the material for this activity has been published and can be found online at:
Note: we hope to update this page regularly, as more material
is added to each Talk a Lot unit! (Page last updated 08/2009)

Sentence Focus Word Focus Free Practice Tests

Unit / Activity
SBs CCs CTs DWs DWQs IEs MPTs DQs AGs RPs VTs LTs

How to Use

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2 Food and Drink
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3 Shopping
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5 Transport
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6 Family
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9 Home
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2 Sport
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3 Music


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5 Animals
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6 Cars
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9 Life Events
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2 Films
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4 Books
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9 The Environment
10 Holidays

KEY

Sentence Focus Activities: SBs (Sentence Blocks); CCs (Connected Sentence Cards);
CTs (Connected Speech Templates)

Word Focus Activities: DWs (Discussion Words); DWQs (Discussion Word Questions);
IEs (Information Exchanges); MPTs (Multi-Purpose Texts)

Free Practice Activities: DQs (Discussion Questions); AGs (Agree or Disagree?);
RPs (Role Plays)

Tests: VTs (Vocabulary Tests); LTs (Lesson Tests)
Talk a Lot

General Information

Course Outline
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Talk a Lot Elementary © English Banana.com
1.2

Talk a Lot

General Information

Lesson Outline
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Talk a Lot Elementary © English Banana.com
1.3

• In our example lesson outline, each lesson lasts for three hours (180 teaching
minutes). This can vary according to your needs, for example, in some English
language classrooms one teaching hour is equal to 45 minutes, and so 3 teaching
hours would be 2¼ hours. Or it may be that you have only 2 hours per week with your
group of students. You can still use Talk a Lot activities to serve up a satisfying and
stimulating lesson – just in a shorter timeframe.

• Each lesson focuses on a specific vocabulary topic. Books 1 and 2 each contain ten
different topics, and Book 3 will also have 10 new topics. Book 3 also introduces
several brand new activities – e.g. Multi-Purpose Texts – so that teachers now have
an even greater variety of possible things to do in each lesson. For each lesson the
teacher can now draw from twelve different activities in four practice categories:

Sentence Focus Activities:• Sentence Blocks (C)

necessary to do the activities in the same order (as stated below) in every lesson, but
better to mix things up each time so that students don’t become used to a set lesson
order.

The core activities provide a reassuring routine for each lesson. For example, at the
beginning of each lesson students come together for the Vocabulary Test and
Talk a Lot

General Information

Lesson Outline
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Talk a Lot Elementary © English Banana.com
1.4

Show and Tell, and at the end of the lesson for Q & A time, and a preview of the next
lesson’s topic.

• Bearing that in mind, here is an example of how you could structure a 3-hour long
Talk a Lot lesson: 15 mins Welcome and Vocabulary Test (see p.1.7) based on the previous lesson’s
topic. The teacher reads out the twenty words to the students in their native
language and they write them in English. The teacher gives back lesson
tests, discusses the answers with the students, and can also ask random

sentences using the sentence blocks. The students can change partners
several times in order to get a good variety of practice, then the whole class
comes together and feeds back to the group, with the teacher asking
additional follow-up questions. During this time the teacher removes the
sentence block sentences from the board, or asks the students to return their
sentence block handouts. This free practice session could be equally
effective with the Agree or Disagree? activity (see p.9.1), or Role Plays
C. A. Tests
CORE
Free Practice
CORE
Sentence Focus
CORE
Free Practice
Talk a Lot

General Information

Lesson Outline
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Talk a Lot Elementary © English Banana.com
1.5

(see p.10.1), instead of the Discussion Questions. You could vary what your
students do lesson by lesson.



10 mins Open question time – students can ask any English-related question. The
teacher looks at the students’ workbooks (this can be any suitable course
book that students work through at home and which complements the lesson)
and checks students’ progress. The teacher previews the topic for the next
lesson and gives out the handouts for the next lesson’s vocabulary test. The
teacher could either give or spend a few minutes eliciting the twenty new
words in the students’ first language. The teacher should encourage students
to keep all of their handouts in their own file, for revision and further study at
home. C. A. Tests
CORE
Word Focus

Sentence Focus
Free Practice
CORE
Talk a Lot

General Information

Assessment Methods, Tests, and Examination
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Talk a Lot Elementary © English Banana.com

each student, to which is added the score from their final exam. This gives each student a
grade for the whole course, ranging from A to U (ungraded fail):

• maximum lesson mark of 80 x 10 = 800 marks +

• maximum final exam mark of 100 =

• maximum course mark of 900 marks

Grade system: Achievement:

Grade A = 800-900 marks First Class
Grade B = 650-800 marks Very Good
Grade C = 550-650 marks Good
Grade D = 400-550 marks Fair Pass
Grade E = 250-400 marks Pass
Grade U = less than 250 marks Fail

Grades A-E are passes. Grade U is ungraded and means that the student has failed the
course. The student’s grade is recorded on their course certificate, for example: