SAALT Newsletter: August Edition
A Month of Celebrations and Reflections
We are happy to share our August newsletter with you. In this newsletter, we share some information regarding our conference that took place on the 10-12 of July at the Breakwater Lodge in Cape Town, and Dr Kabelo and Prof. Albert Weideman share their thoughts on assessment. But first…
On 9 August, in honour of Women's Day, SAALT recognises the outstanding contributions of Dr Connie Makgabo (deputy chair of SAALT), Dr Nkhensani Maluleke, Dr Refilwe Ramakgoshi and Dr Remah Lubambo, to the field of African languages.
Their exemplary work as guest editors for the recent African Languages special edition (Volume 58, 1) of the Journal of Language Teaching, showcases their dedication and expertise in advancing language education. We celebrate their leadership and scholarly achievements in promoting and preserving African languages.
To access the edition click here: https://www.journals.ac.za/jlt
SPECIAL ISSUE: Creating opportunities to explore issues around the epistemological and ontological assumptions of African languages acquisition and learning: The African way.
SAALT's Successful 60th Anniversary Conference in Cape Town
On another celebratory note, SAALT is proud of the successful conference that took place in collaboration with CPUT on the 10-12 of July at the Breakwater Lodge in Cape Town with over 100 delegates from across South Africa and even internationally. We had four incredible keynote speakers Prof Theo du Plessis; Prof Rosemary Wildsmith-Cromarty; Prof Russel Kaschula; Prof Marivate), who probed us with their addresses to think about language development from a multilingual, historical, cultural and ethnographical point of view.
Here is a personal message of gratitude from the chairperson of SAALT, Prof . Kotie Kaiser.
Thank you to everyone who participated in our annual conference in Cape Town from 10-12 July which was presented in collaboration with our dedicated and committed colleagues from CPUT under the leadership of Dr Kabelo Sebolai. This year’s theme was “Celebrating 60 years of excellence in teaching and learning in diverse contexts” and we were privileged to celebrate SAALT’s diamond anniversary and its 60-year journey with distinguished keynote speakers, scholars, and presenters who reflected on the changes, challenges, growth, and progression of language teaching and learning in multilingual language contexts over the past six decades.
Furthermore, at the conference dinner, Professor Rinelle Evans, the current president of SAALT, celebrated the organisation’s 60th anniversary by providing an overview of its origins and development.
SAALT’s inception is dated to September 26, 1964, when 52 language teachers and lecturers gathered at the Johannesburg College of Education for a one-day conference initiated by Leslie Proctor, who is widely regarded as the father of the organisation. The delegates had met to discuss the emerging and highly popular language laboratory technology. It was this enthusiasm and interest in language teaching developments that led to the formation of the Language Teaching Study Group—a community of practice we would likely call a Special Interest Group (SIG) today. Over time, this group evolved into the significant entity we are today, comprising researchers and language practitioners committed to advancing debates and innovation in language education.
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, the organisation grew despite challenges such as financial constraints and severe political isolation. It began publishing newsletters, and later a journal, reflecting the evolving dynamics in language education. Our Journal for Language Teaching gained accreditation in 1985 and has since become a respected publication in the field, now available as open access.
For many years, language laboratories were central to language teaching. However, researchers like Noam Chomsky eventually challenged the behaviourist theories underpinning the audiolingual approach, which these costly devices relied on. As these technologies were largely limited to higher education institutions and elite schools, support for their use declined as new research offered alternative language acquisition theories.
In the post-2000 era, technology continues to play a significant role in language teaching and assessment. We have adapted to digital trends, holding our first online AGM in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We now share expertise internationally via Zoom, offer professional development webinars aimed at emerging researchers, and have expanded our focus to include multilingualism, translanguaging, gamification, South African Sign Language, international language-related trends, and, more recently, AI technology.
Strong leadership, national collaboration, and international exposure are key to our continued success. We must actively pursue global connections and address the stagnation in language teaching within South Africa. We celebrate SAALT’s past successes and remain committed to the founders’ original vision: to serve, enable and engage with those in southern Africa, influencing research, language learning and teaching, as well as assessment for another six decades.
Prof. Lionel Posthumus Honored at SAALT Conference
At the conference dinner, Prof Lionel Posthumus was awarded the SAALT Lifetime Award. Prof Posthumus, currently a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), has been teaching African languages to both mother-tongue and non-mother-tongue speakers since 1974, focusing primarily on isiZulu at the University of the Free State, University of Zululand, Vista, Unisa, University of Pretoria, RAU, and UJ.
Furthermore, during the conference, all of the different SAALT Special Interest Groups (SIGs) came together and brainstormed ideas for collaboration. One of the SIGs, Assessment and Testing, led by Dr Kabelo (CPUT) and Prof Albert Weideman (UFS), contributed to this newsletter by writing the following on assessment.
NExLA
Did you know that one of the most active special interest groups of SAALT is the Network of Expertise in Language Assessment (NExLA)? As interest in language assessment has grown, their work has become increasingly relevant. Newcomer to the field? This is the SIG for you.
Language teachers and lecturers are showing a greater interest in fair and reliable testing, because they are taking their professional responsibilities ever more seriously. Becoming more knowledgeable about how to test language ability is known as language assessment literacy, often abbreviated as ‘LAL’. Despite global interest in LAL in the last two decades, it is an issue that has not received due attention in South Africa. NExLA aims to help set that right.
At the SAALT 2024 conference, NExLA put together a team to present a full-day workshop on “The responsible design of language tests”. We aim to follow that up in two ways.
At the 2025 conference, we aim to present a pre-conference workshop on making use of statistical analyses to improve and refine language assessments. Then, in the meantime, we want to present webinars on a series of topics:
- Testing in sign language: How do we do it?
- What is reliability in language testing, and how do we measure it?
- How do we know whether a test is valid?
- Are Rasch analyses useful in refining language tests?
Never heard of Rasch analysis? Then join us, and be in the know!
Find out more about NExLA by checking out its website: https://nexla.org.za/. Do you want to locate an authoritative source on language testing in South Africa? Go one step further, and click on the ‘Bibliography’ tab. Here you will find all the analyses of language tests over the last 20 years or more.
How to become a member of
- SAALT: Click here.
- NExLA: Click here (NExLA members are constitutionally obliged to take out SAALT membership as well)
- SAALT Special Interest Groups (SIGS): Don’t forget to join one of our Special Interest Groups (SIGS). Please go to: https://saalt.org.za/about-us/#SIGS
Become a reviewer for the Journal for Language Teaching
Exciting opportunities: Coursework MA Applied Linguistics at the University of Pretoria
One of the most exciting pieces of news this year: a newly conceived and developed MA in Applied Linguistics will be offered at the University of Pretoria from 2025.
South Africa is in dire need of professionals who can design responsible interventions to solve our many language problems. In fact, as Albert Weideman, chairperson of the Inter-institutional Centre for Language Development and Assessment (ICELDA) points out: “We have more language problems crying out for designed solutions than can be solved in a lifetime.”
ICELDA, a four-university consortium for devising designed solutions in language curriculum, test and policy design, is supporting this to the hilt. ICELDA’s hope is that this may be the start of the formation of a large corps of experts that can bring solutions to the vexing language problems that beset us. The consortium has generously made funds available to ensure the success of this new programme. It has made scholarships available for prospective students, and it hopes that its request to SAALT to match these will also be successful. Their network of professional expertise is available to fill in where the University of Pretoria needs it. We may also look forward to seeing other institutions following suit: there is a good chance of it being offered at North-West University in good time, and in Afrikaans at Akademia.
The course will be a taught course, with compulsory modules and electives. For the mini-dissertation, a wide panel of supervisory professionals is standing ready.
Interested in gaining a qualification of undoubted quality? Get in touch with Dr Avasha Rambiritch (avasha.rambiritch@up.ac.za).
Upcoming Event: 28 August - Webinar
How to use AI for data analysis by Dr Celeste Combrinck
Upcoming Event: 18 September - Webinar
Webinar: Write well with Rinelle - How to write a paper
Passcode: SF9hKG
