Associate Professor, ESL
Coordinator
Languages and Literatures
St. John Hall Room 434F
Queens campus
(718) 990-1929
beliavsn@stjohns.edu
Educational Background
Ph.D., 1993, Northwestern University, Applied
Linguistics
M.A., 1987, Northwestern University, Applied
Linguistics
B.A., 1983, University of Wisconsin, Madison,
Psychology
B.A., 1982, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee,
Linguistics/Philosophy
Research
Current research
I am conducting research into the learning methods first discussed
by Lev Vygotsky, a noted Russian psycholinguist. I am especially
interested in how Vygotsky’s theory of the “Zone of Proximal
Development” – dealing with development of more accurate
means of predicting the child’s future cognitive development,
relates to Professor Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple
Intelligences. I am also researching the impact of “The Mozart
Effect” on the memory and comprehension of ESL students. Recent
developments in the field of educational psychology provided a
glimmer of understanding of how music improves spatial-temporal
reasoning . My research aims to demonstrate that college students
learning English as their second language significantly improve in
their comprehension and memory of written texts while listening to
music. Furthermore, I am also developing new and unorthodox methods
of promoting motivation and reducing anxiety in college students by
using computers, film, and new content based materials in the
classroom. (e.g. opera, young adult literature, Chekhov’s short
stories, etc.)
Areas of Specialization