Natalia Balyasnikova

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor (Assistant) at York University

Theories formulated by Russian psychologist and educator Lev Vygotsky currently range from being applied and celebrated across multiple contexts to be considered outdated. In this paper, we maintain that such inconsistency in application stems from the overreliance on translated or reformulated Vygotskian theories, the attempts to understand these...

This article examines the role of storytelling as an arts-based educational approach in an older-adult immigrant language-learning program. As a special group within the adult language-learner population, immigrant seniors benefit from educational strategies that emphasize recognition of life experience over knowledge accumulation, which is a commo...

This paper describes three intertwined initiatives located in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside that used arts-based programming to enhance language learning experiences of immigrant seniors. The three cases described in this paper speak not only to the benefits of creative expression in later life learning, and in particular with adult immigrants, but...

Through the case of Jacqui, this article describes a community-based project called Seniors Thrive, which was intended to help immigrant seniors learn English, build social connections, and strengthen their leadership in order to support their health and well-being. The programming merged language learning and leadership opportunities through arts-...

In this paper we explore how place-based poetry mediated online enabled community self-representation. Located in the urban core of a large cosmopolitan Canadian city, the PhoneMe project brought together academic researchers and community members into a collaborative educational creative space. Community members created poems about specific places...

This article explores the discursive construction of age by older adult language learners, with a particular focus on older immigrants in Vancouver, Canada. It draws on data generated as part of a larger narrative ethnography conducted over the course of a year within an English as an additional language storytelling class. Specifically, it looks a...

This article examines the role of storytelling as an arts-based educational approach in an older-adult immigrant language-learning program. As a special group within the adult language-learner population, immigrant seniors benefit from educational strategies that emphasize recognition of life experience over knowledge accumulation, which is a commo...

The inadequacy of traditional research methods, underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighted the urgent need for innovative approaches, particularly to research involving older adults. This article reflects on the complexities of establishing and sustaining research partnerships with older adults for digital research tool testing and developme...

This article explores the role of literary user preference and experience of contextualizing information in the interpretive responses to poems on PhoneMe, a social media web-platform and mobile app for place-based spoken word poetry. 137 education students in three Canadian universities participated by completing a survey that asked them to choose...

Many community-based English language learning programs rely on volunteers to lead classes. While some of these volunteers have some teacher training, the majority are not professional educators. The question of these non-professionals’ understanding of what constitutes facilitation of language learning in adult education context, remains underexpl...

his paper showcases three innovative takes on storytelling for the benefit of community-based and adult education. First, we present a community language learning program. Second, we present storytelling as an arts-based approach to language learning in older adult classrooms. Third, we reflect on the role of storytelling in a grassroots social and...

This article describes the process of using an ethnodrama while working with older adults learning English as an additional language. By examining a 4-month-long period of Seniors Drama Club, created to offer theatre-based language learning experiences for Vancouver's immigrant senior population, the authors draw attention to the complex learning t...