On Wednesday 30 July, the South African Association for Language Teachers had their Annual General Meeting, held, in our present circumstances, in the form of a virtual Zoom meeting. In many respects, it confirmed our stability as an association, and the great potential there is for further growth.
We bade farewell to Professor Brenda Spencer, who retired at the end of 2019, and paid tribute to one of our life-time awardees, Professor Johan M Lenake, who passed on recently.
Feedback provided on the 2019 conference that SAALT had taken responsibility for organising was positive. We are pleased, too, that the infrastructure for organising future conferences has been created.
We were reminded at this meeting of the extensive international and local networks that we have built. Future endeavours in this regard relate to linking South African researchers with others in their field, especially in terms of collaborative projects.
The AGM approved of a new membership structure, amendments to the Constitution, capitalising on our website traffic, and plans for capacity building of emerging researchers and teachers.
New editor for the Journal for Language Teaching
Reports from the treasurer and editor indicated how stable we are, and what potential we have. The new editor of our Journal for Language Teaching, Professor Adelia Carstens, shared her vision for the next four years with us. We are also proud to announce that under the leadership of Professor Tobie van Dyk, our journal has passed scrutiny by the Academy of Science of South Africa and has retained its accreditation.
New Executive Committee
Even the electronic voting surpassed our expectations! The new executive committee that was voted into office until 2022 is:
Honorary president: Professor Brenda Spencer (Retired from UNISA)
Chair: Professor Rinelle Evans (UP)
Deputy chair; Professor Tobie van Dyk (NWU)
Treasurer: Mr Zander Janse van rensburg (NWU)
Secretary: Dr Connie Makgabo (UP)
Additional member: Ms Alexa Anthonie (CPUT)
We have an exciting road ahead. Most particularly, we shall aim to provide support, and open up further opportunities to our members during our term of office.