Natalia Fabisz – linguistics and beyond

Attention can be either involuntary (spontaneous) or intentional. It can be characterized by the length of time it remains active (attention span), by the strength of mental processes involved (attention intensity), and by the number of items it could be focused on (attention division). It greatly depends on an individual’s temperament, emotions, interests, well-being, age, and surroundings.
One of the first major psychologists, William James, is the author of the most famous definition of attention, which he defined in these words:

Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought…It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others ( Jacknicke 1995).

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Attention and memory are a series of mental processes within the brain which enable humans to organize information in such a way that they can succeed in educational institutions, work, and social life. The academic achievement of students afflicted with ADHD is dependent on how well the information is processed by their brain as well as to what extent these processes are affected by the syndrome. Attentiveness and memory are strictly interlaced, thereby they are required to be considered in their totality as interdependent correlates.
Attention describes a number of cognitive processes which are responsible for the following:

• keeping the mind alert to any activities or behaviors found around and maintaining alertness and perception while awaiting the occurrence of particular stimuli;
• distinguishing and sorting out the most important elements in the field of perception (e.g. via the visual or auditory channel) as well as discarding elements found to be insignificant;
• organizing mental processes around the central issue without engaging in sidetracking;
• analyzing any particular stimulus and shifting focus.

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Even the best presentation technique is not enough in itself to help to internalize the language. In order to shift the lexicon from passive to active students need a lot of practice and recycling of the vocabulary taught. The multitude of techniques at this stage includes: graphs and grids, matching synonyms or antonyms, filling in diagrams, paraphrasing, multiple choice or gap filling exercises, cloze tests, word building using prefixes and suffixes, matching pictures to words, matching parts of words, classifying items into lists, completing specific tasks using words provided, listening activities, memory and guessing games, productive written activities, communicative activities, role-plays, discussions, word games “useful for practising and revising vocabulary after it has been introduced” (Haycraft 1978:50), word puzzles like word squares, crosswords. They in turn can be aided by visual prompting useful for revision of both vocabulary and structures

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