Ninah Beliavsky

Dr. Ninah Beliavsky is an Associate Professor and the Coordinator of ESL in the Department of Languages and Literatures at St. John’s University, Queens, New York where she teaches Linguistics, Modern Hebrew and English as a Second Language. She holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. in applied Linguistics from Northwestern University and a B.A. in Linguistics and Psychology from the Universities of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and Madison. Dr. Beliavsky has also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, France and the University of Tel Aviv in Israel. Dr. Beliavsky speaks Russian, Hebrew, French, and English. Her interests include child language acquisition, the use of the imagination in language learning and teaching, bringing the arts (music and dance) into the classroom, and applying Lev Vygotsky’s and Howard Gardner’s theories to language teaching. More recently, Dr. Beliavsky has also become interested in exploring the theoretical and the practical implications of formulaic language and has started incorporating formulaic language into her L2 instruction. Her articles appeared in various journals such as WORD: Journal of the International Linguistic Association, the Journal of Aesthetic Education, the Journal of the Imagination in Language Learning, Journal of Pacific Asian Communication and The Hong Kong Linguist, among others. She also contributed to two anthologies: Multiple Intelligences, Howard Gardner and New Methods in College Teaching and Imagination, and Cognition and Language Acquisition, both edited by Dr. Clyde Coreil. Dr. Beliavsky was honored to serve as an associate editor for the latter. She has lectured extensively at International/National language conferences held by various organizations such as the AERA, TESOL, and ILA. In 2002, she was invited to present her paper “Revisiting Vygotsky and Gardner: Realizing Human Potential” at the International Conference on L. S. Vygotsky at the Moscow State University. Dr. Beliavsky has been an active member of the International Linguistics Association (ILA) since 2000 and has served on the Board of the Executive Committee of the ILA since 2001. In 2009, she was invited to Chair the Annual International Conference for the International Linguistics Association, which she held at St. John’s University's Manhattan Campus. On April 19, 2014, Dr. Ninah Beliavsky Co-Chaired an international conference on “Teaching Formulaic Language” that was also held on the St. John’s University Manhattan Campus.

On April 20-22, 2018, Dr. Ninah Beliavsky was invited to deliver an Opening Address on Language and Religion- “He blew into his nostrils the breath of life and it became in Adam a power of speech” at the 63rd Annual International Linguistic Association Conference (ILA) at SJU.