COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE ENHANCEMENT AMONG OLDER ADULTS: THE ROLE OF LANGUAGING

In this paper, one of the goals is to highlight a disciplinary intersection between applied linguistics, psychology and gerontology. Though connections between applied linguistics and psychology, and applied linguistics and gerontology, have been made in the past, the particular intersection described offers some new insights by making use of a Vygotskian sociocultural theory of mind perspective as the basis for thinking about these three disciplines. A key idea that a Vygotskian perspective adds is the notion that mind is mediated, and also it adds a particular way to view the relationship between language and thought (Swain, Kinnear & Steinman, 2011).