SAALT Newsletter: February Edition
Embracing Language, Learning, and Innovation
Dear SAALT Members and Language Teaching Community,
The academic year is in full swing, and we wish you all the best for 2025. We are truly looking forward to expanding our language teaching community this year and have some exciting events coming up. Some exciting days are coming up in February, such as Valentine’s Day (14 February) and International Mother Language Day (21 February), a celebration of linguistic diversity and the importance of preserving our native tongues.
In this newsletter, we share the details of some events that are not to be missed. If you have not already done so, save the date for our conference in July, which will take place at Skukuza, Kruger National Park (more details below).
We would also like to encourage everyone to renew their SAALT membership for 2025. Members have access to an online profile and are also able to view our directory of expertise, i.e. members who indicated that they are willing to act as a journal article reviewer, external examiner, moderator, etc. Members also qualify for a 20% discount on page fees if they publish in the Journal for Language Teaching.
If you have missed the latest issue of the journal, visit https://www.journals.ac.za/jlt/index to read the articles published in this volume which follows a landmark special issue of the Journal for Language Teaching dedicated to articles written in African languages. It comprises a total of six articles written in English and one in isiZulu that continue to deal with matters that are pertinent to the issue of language teaching and development in current times.
Upcoming webinars
We have an exciting upcoming webinar series focusing on assessment, Assess smart with Albert. This series is presented as a SAALT SIG (NExLA) offering.
The webinars will be presented on MS Teams. The following link can be used to attend the webinar
| Webinar | Date | Time | Presenter |
|---|---|---|---|
| How to improve the quality of your language assessment: a case study about switching constructs and format, and reducing hassle | 19 March 2025 | 13:00 | Prof. Albert Weideman |
| Your own imagination is the only limitation: Devising items for testing language ability economically, and using AI responsibly | 7 May 2025 | 13:00 | Prof. Albert Weideman |
| Using technical tools to enhance quality: Using TiaPlus Build 314 (freeware) for analysis | 18 June 2025 | 13:00 | Prof. Albert Weideman |
Membership Fees for 2025
We would like to remind everyone to renew their SAALT Membership for 2025. More information is available on our website at https://saalt.org.za/become-a-member/ From this page you will be able to navigate to our membership levels. The following options are available:
- SAALT Individual Teacher Membership: R250
- SAALT Schools Memberships: R500
- SAALT registered Postgraduate Students: R200
- SAALT Registered Academics/researchers/Other Institutions: R500
After you have made your selection on the following page https://saalt.org.za/membership-levels/ you can choose one of two options.
-
Option 1:
Subscribe and pay via our secure online payment portal, Payfast. The subscribe and pay option allows you to immediately access your online profile. -
Option 2:
Request an invoice and pay via EFT or submit your invoice to your institution. If you choose this option, please remember to submit your proof of payment to the upload link that is sent to you via email after you have subscribed. As soon as your payment has been verified (please allow 2 weeks for this process), you will be able to access your online profile.
Love in Every Language: A Valentine’s Celebration of Wordplay ❤️📖
As we celebrate Valentine’s Day, we also celebrate our deep affection for languages. Just for fun, here are some wordplay quotes and puns:
📝 “You had me at ‘hello’—but you kept me with your syntax.”
💘 “Love is like grammar: sometimes it’s past perfect, sometimes it’s just past tense.”
💌 “I’d spell ‘love’ with only U and I.”
😂 “Are you an oxford comma? Because you complete me.”
📖 “You are the definition of my favourite word: love.”
🥰 “You’re like a perfectly crafted sentence—complete, meaningful, and impossible to forget.”
💕 “You’re the noun to my verb—completely necessary.”
💖 “You’re the metaphor to my poetry and the syntax to my soul.”
📚 “You must be a simile, because you’re like nothing else.”
😂 “Are you a dangling modifier? Because you make my heart pause unexpectedly!”
💘 “Roses are red, violets are blue, let’s conjugate verbs… just me and you!”
🖋 “Our love story is my favourite work in progress.”