Attention Boosters in ESP Lectures

General Problem language teaching requires the student’s active participation in the process to turn out successful students often lapse into inattention as the lesson proceeds the rate at which this happens is yet higher at lectures than at seminars to combat the problem, attention boosters should be deployed

Attention Boosters Taxonomy: message encryption deviation (from the expected)  semantic  prosodic  quantitative visuals repetition

Message Encryption an encrypted message requires decryption on the part of its recipient to be understood needs analysis and analysis of the socio-cultural background of the audience prove to be pivotal metaphors perform the attention-boosting operation effectively when deployed with prudence

Message Encryption - Computer is not “he”, but “she”. The computer should be referred to as “it”. Males may also use “she”, but be aware of the connotations.

Metaphor - it vs. she Meet my Mary! Isn’t she wonderful? Check out her mouse!

Metaphor - teaching IT vocabulary Background information: to abort a program – to terminate a program chache – a fast type of memory built in the processor Token Ring – a type of network object-oriented programming – the way of making programs using object-oriented programming languages (based on objects) resource-consuming – consuming a lot of computer power

Metaphor - teaching IT vocabulary I'm currently running the latest version of Girlfriend 5.0 and having some problems. Girlfriend also seems to have a problem coexisting with Golfware, often trying to abort my Golf program with some sort of timing incompatibility. After months of conflicts, I consulted a friend who has experience with Girlfriend 2.0. He said I probably didn't have enough cache to run Girlfriend 2.0 and eventually it would require a Token Ring upgrade to run properly. He was right.

Metaphor As soon as I purged my cache, Girlfriend 2.0 uninstalled itself. The version I have now works pretty well, but, like all versions, there are still some problems. The Girlfriend package is written in some obscure language that I can't understand, much less reprogram. And I've never liked how Girlfriend is totally 'object-oriented.' A year ago, a friend upgraded his version to GirlfriendPlus 1.0 He discovered GirlfriendPlus 1.0 expires within a year if you don't upgrade to Fiancee 1.0. So he did. But soon after that, you have to upgrade to Wife 1.0, which he describes as ‘extremely resource-consuming.‘ source:

Prosodic Deviation changes in intonation and rhythm enable the lecturer to deviate from what his/her audience expect to hear in terms of the speaker’s voice prosodic alterations: –raising and lowering pitch –changing volume of the speech –changing speed – speeding up or slowing down –placing intonation stress on the segments the speaker considers of paramount importance asking and answering questions – rising and falling intonation

Visuals Background information: a blue screen – a situation where Windows freezes as a result of some internal error (accompanied by an error report presented on a blue background)

Visuals The blue screen must really have outraged him.

Visuals Background information: Linux is an operating system most distributions of which are command-based, i.e. the users have to use Linux commands rather than a graphical interface (with icons) to run their programs, configure the system, etc. The Linux logo is a penguin.

Visuals He must really hate the command-based operating systems.

Visuals Someone has been eating my porridge! And they've eaten it ALL UP! Someone has been sitting in my chair! Someone has been sleeping in my bed!

Visuals It’s high time you updated your driver.

Repetition By deviating from what is expected in its place, repetition draws the listener’s attention to what lies in its vicinity. Besides, it reinforces the acquisition of the information it encapsulates. Examples: Why is the initialization string called initialization? Well, the initialization string initializes the modem.

Repetition The modem seems to be poorly configured. What about re-configuring it (by changing its configuration settings) to make it properly configured and avoid the same configuration- based problem in the future.

Conclusion Attention boosters: call for the listeners’ active involvement in the form of decryption of the message presented (encrypted message, metaphor) deviate from what is expected in their place and thus draw the listeners’ attention to themselves, to what is associated with them, and to what lies in their vicinity (metaphor, prosodic alterations, unexpected visual information, repetition) should be utilized the way that ensures their proper functioning and does not shift the audience’s attention away from the subject matter