SAALT Newsletter: October Edition

Language, Inclusion, and Innovation: Empowering Teachers, Shaping Futures

In this newsletter, as we enter October 2026, a month rich with commemorative observances, we pause to acknowledge three significant celebrations that resonate deeply with the education community: World Teachers’ Day on 5 October, Dyslexia October Month, and National Dictionary Day on 16 October (Neurodiversity). But before we get into all of that, we kick off our newsletter with our new call for papers for a special edition to be published in 2027.

Follow us on Facebook!

Call for Papers

Journal for Language Teaching (JLT)

Special Issue: Language, Technology and Community: Building Resilient and Sustainable Futures in Education

SAALT invites researchers, academics, teacher educators, language practitioners, postgraduate scholars and education professionals to submit original scholarly contributions for a special issue of the Journal for Language Teaching (JLT).

This special issue brings together the intellectual conversations and research contributions emerging from the 2025 SAALT Conference, From Chalkboards to Chatbots: Language Education’s Journey and Future, and the 2026 SAALT Conference, The Spirit of Ubuntu: Voices in Harmony – Where Classrooms Meet Community to Transform Language Teaching Through Shared Wisdom.

Together, these conferences have highlighted two interconnected dimensions of educational transformation: the rapidly evolving role of technology in language education and the enduring importance of human relationships, multilingualism, cultural knowledge and community participation in teaching and learning.

The future of language education cannot be shaped by technological innovation alone, nor can it be sustained without the languages, knowledge systems and communities that give education its meaning.

As educational institutions navigate artificial intelligence, digital transformation, linguistic diversity, social inequalities, and changing educational demands, there is an increasing need to rethink how language, technology, and community can work together to create more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable educational futures.

This special issue, therefore, seeks to move beyond viewing technological advancement and community-centred education as separate priorities. Instead, it invites scholarship that explores how these dimensions can complement, challenge and strengthen one another to transform language teaching, learning and teacher education.

Of particular interest is research demonstrating how technological innovation can be meaningfully integrated with Ubuntu-informed practices, multilingual pedagogies, indigenous knowledge systems and community engagement to improve educational quality, equity, accessibility and sustainability.

We recognise that teachers and teacher educators are central to this transformation. Preparing educators for the future requires more than developing technological competence; it requires strengthening their professional judgement, linguistic responsiveness, cultural awareness, adaptability and capacity to collaborate with learners, families and communities.

Through this special issue, SAALT aims to stimulate critical scholarly dialogue and disseminate research that advances an educational future in which language connects, technology enables and communities empower.

Suggested Areas of Contribution

We welcome original empirical, theoretical, conceptual and methodological contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following interconnected areas:

Language education, artificial intelligence and digital transformation
- AI-supported language teaching, learning and assessment.
- Generative AI, digital literacy and emerging educational technologies.
- Ethical, responsible and contextually appropriate AI integration.
- Human–AI collaboration and professional judgement in teaching.
Ubuntu, multilingualism and community-centred education
- Ubuntu-informed approaches to language education and teacher development.
- Multilingual pedagogies, translanguaging and linguistic inclusion.
- Community knowledge, indigenous languages and culturally responsive teaching.
- Partnerships between schools, universities, families and communities.
Teacher education for resilient and sustainable futures
- Preparing pre-service and in-service teachers for evolving educational contexts.
- Digital, AI and multilingual competencies in teacher education.
- Teacher agency, professional identity, adaptability and lifelong learning.
- Sustainable professional development and collaborative communities of practice.
Equity, access and sustainability in language education
- Addressing the digital divide and educational inequalities.
- Linguistic justice, indigenous knowledge and epistemic inclusion.
- Sustainable and context-responsive educational innovation.
- Language education in under-resourced and diverse learning environments.
Connecting classrooms, technologies and communities
- Technology-mediated collaboration and community engagement.
- Innovative language pedagogies grounded in local educational realities.
- Participatory, interdisciplinary and community-based educational research.
- Strengthening connections between educational research, policy and practice.

Submission Invitation

Authors who presented at either the 2025 or 2026 SAALT conferences are particularly encouraged to develop their conference contributions into full-length, original research articles. Submissions from scholars who did not participate in these conferences are equally welcome, provided their work aligns with the special issue’s overarching theme.

All submissions should demonstrate scholarly rigour, offer a clear contribution to knowledge and articulate implications for language education, educational practice, policy or teacher education.

Manuscripts will be subject to the journal’s established editorial and peer-review procedures.

Submission Details

Journal: Journal for Language Teaching (JLT)

Special issue theme: Language, Technology and Community: Building Resilient and Sustainable Futures in Education

Submission deadline: 10 December 2026

Anticipated publication: June/July 2027

Submission guidelines and manuscript portal: View Submission Guidelines

Enquiries: Dr Joyce West – joyce.west@up.ac.za

An Invitation to Shape the Future Together

SAALT invites the language education community to contribute to this important scholarly conversation.

By bringing together the technological perspectives of the 2025 conference and the Ubuntu-inspired, community-centred perspectives of the 2026 conference, this special issue seeks to advance a shared vision of educational transformation: one in which innovation is guided by human values, linguistic diversity is recognised as an educational resource, and teachers and communities are empowered to shape sustainable futures.

Together, let us bridge language, technology and community to build a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable future for education.

Celebrating World Teacher’s Day

This month, on the 5th of October 2026, we commence by commemorating World Teachers’ Day under the theme “standing with teachers: 60 years of protecting the profession, advancing its status and shaping our futures.” In South Africa, as elsewhere in the world, we honour our teachers and celebrate the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the 1966 ILO/UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. Remembering that the right to education is a fundamental human right means standing with our teachers to ensure that they have enough resources, social status/recognition, and both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to protect this right for every child who enters the South African educational system. This is in consideration of the diverse, multicultural, and multilingual landscape of the South African population, the varied economic backgrounds of our learners, and the unique educational needs of every child.

This means that regardless of the peculiar circumstances in each region, district, school, or home, we support our teachers, protect the teaching profession, and advance its status to continue laying a solid foundation for our learners to thrive from the early school years onward. This is to ensure that every learner is nurtured enough to reach their full academic potential, while developing a holistic human personality that promotes the values of ubuntu, which valorises inclusion, compassion, and tolerance, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, language, and economic status, among other demographics. This will ensure that the future of our country is shaped by community structures that support social cohesion at national and international levels, where self-actualisation and community upward mobility are possible for all.

As we celebrate and honour our teachers, we call upon them to be resilient lifelong learners who understand the unique needs of our country and to equip themselves with the knowledge, skills, and qualifications necessary to remain relevant in the profession, especially in the 21st century. We also call upon our government, parents, learners, teachers’ organisations, and all other stakeholders to support our teachers and create a conducive working environment in which they can thrive.

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month.

This comes at an opportune moment as we have recently celebrated International Literacy Day in September. While in September we emphasised literacy as a foundation for lifelong learning, this month we highlight that this journey is not achieved through a one-size-fits-all, step-by-step approach, but is unique to each learner’s learning processes, the linguistic components of each language, and the supporting environment. Hence, this month we embrace the learning differences of our learners, celebrate dyslexic strengths, promote inclusion, and challenge social stigmas.

We would like to highlight that dyslexia does not in any way measure learners’ intelligence; it is just a common lifelong neurodevelopmental condition that affects how the brain processes written and spoken language. Actually, research shows that learners with this condition tend to excel in oral storytelling, visual-spatial reasoning, problem-solving skills, creativity, and spatial thinking. This means that instead of primarily framing literacy as the ability to read and write, we should also be open to all dimensions of multiliteracies and embrace them as equally important and complementary in the learning process. We should encourage semiotisation that is aligned with the strengths of all learners in the classroom. For instance, transforming relevant written texts into audiobooks and other multimodal learning formats should be prioritised for learners based on their needs.

Raising much-needed awareness about dyslexia in our social and learning environments would also provide early support for learners, parents, and guardians. It would create a safe learning environment and instil confidence rather than shame in learners with this condition. Every learner is unique, and so are their learning needs. We should celebrate and embrace them equally!

Commemorating National Dictionary Day

Every year on the 16th of October, the world commemorates National Dictionary Day in honour of Noah Webster’s birthday, as he is known as the “father of the American Dictionary.” Noah Webster received this honour for publishing an American English dictionary that uses a different orthography, lexical terms, and some grammar rules from British English. This day underscores the important role of vocabulary expansion as a meaningful way to improve literacy, highlights the etymology of words, valorises language variation, and emphasises the importance of lexicographers and the field of lexicography in language preservation.

This day resonates well with the rich tapestry of the South African linguistic and cultural landscape. South Africa celebrates 12 official languages and several unofficial languages, including the Khoe and San languages. In South Africa, the official languages are intentionally developed and promoted by the Pan South African Language Board’s (PanSALB) advisory units, one of which includes the National Lexicography Unit. One lexicographical work that is widely celebrated this year in South Africa is the launch of the Trilingual Dictionary of Kaaps, compiled through a collaborative effort between the Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research (CMDR) at the University of the Western Cape and the community NGO Heal the Hood Project. Similar to Noah Webster’s American English dictionary, the Kaaps dictionary positions itself as a legitimate language distinct from standard Afrikaans.

Both the Noah Webster dictionary and the Kaaps dictionary demonstrate that dictionary compilation is more than just preserving a language and expanding its vocabulary. It is also a process of inclusion where those whose language varieties are marginalised by dominant standard languages find belonging and recognition in formal texts. This further encourages reflection on adding terms from all language varieties when compiling dictionaries or similar projects, such as terminology development for a specific language. In the South African context, this would also show how the vocabulary of different languages has influenced how we view the world today. For instance, the inclusion of terms that show the Sesotho etymology in isiNdebele, the etymology of Afrikaans terms in isiXhosa or the etymology of isiZulu terms in the South African English vocabulary, and how the English language vocabulary has influenced all South African languages. Hence, this year on National Dictionary Week, we reflect not only on the importance of vocabulary in a language, but also on the interconnection between languages and different speech communities.

Celebrating our new Exco member, Dr Mbali Sunrise Dhlamini

We are delighted to formally introduce Dr Mbali Sunrise Dhlamini, who was recently selected as our new Deputy Chairperson for the South African Association for Language Teaching.

Mbali’s academic background and passion for language education make her well-suited to join our executive committee. Holding a PhD in African Language Studies, Mbali has been a lecturer under the prestigious New Generation of Academics Programme (nGAP) at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) since January 2022. Her extensive academic portfolio includes lecturing, postgraduate co-coordination, supervising postgraduate students, representing her department and faculty in multiple committees, publishing research outputs, and regularly serving as a peer reviewer for a number of national and international academic publishers/university presses.

Passionate about social cohesion in South Africa and beyond, in 2025, Mbali completed a UWC SETA-funded certificate in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB). And, having DELF B2 proficiency in French, she has also participated in a language and cultural exchange programme as a language teacher in France during the 2016/2017 and 2017/2018 academic years.

In this leadership role, Mbali will work closely with the executive board to advance SAALT’s mission to promote excellence in language teaching, drive innovative research, and support our vibrant community of educators across the country. Mbali’s core research focus lies at the heart of our multilingual nation; her interests cover multilingualism, language education, historical linguistics (particularly of isiNguni languages), and the inclusion of Human Language Technologies in the intellectualisation of African languages.

Beyond her academic credentials, Mbali holds a unique perspective on language, identity, and heritage that directly fuels her advocacy. Mbali claims that she does not belong to any modern South African ethnic group; instead, she has negotiated her identity broadly enough to belong to a heritage that predates the formation of the Ndebele, Swati, Xhosa, or Zulu groups, for example. This expansive worldview allows her to advocate for absolute inclusion – even for speech communities whose languages are not officially recognised in South Africa, such as isiBhaca and isiMbondo. Mbali is driven by the firm belief that no speech community should be left behind, whether in academic literacy or in the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Please join us in giving a warm welcome to Dr Mbali Sunrise Dhlamini!

Membership Fees for 2026/2027

Becoming a SAALT member offers valuable opportunities for professional growth, networking, and collaboration within the language teaching community. Members gain access to an online profile and a directory of expertise, where they can connect with colleagues who have indicated their willingness to serve as journal article reviewers, external examiners, moderators, and more. This creates a dynamic platform for building partnerships and sharing knowledge. In addition, members enjoy exclusive benefits, including a 20% discount on page fees when publishing in the Journal for Language Teaching (JLT). By joining SAALT, you become part of a vibrant network dedicated to advancing language education and research across South Africa and beyond.

Important notice: Membership runs from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027.

We would like to remind everyone to renew their SAALT Membership for 2026/2027. 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:

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 access your online profile immediately.
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.

Special Interest Groups

To join the SAALT SIG Community you can scan the QR code below, or click on the WhatsApp link for the specific SIG you are interested in.

Academic Writing

During our conference last year, we discussed opportunities for the coming year. We shared ideas on how we can collaborate and promote best practices among members who are interested in academic writing. One of the initiatives we would like to launch is to build an online bibliography of publications on academic writing. If there are members who are willing to participate and would like to share their research with us, please send an email to info@saalt.org.za.

You are also welcome to join the Academic Writing WhatsApp Group simply by clicking here.

Assessment and Testing

The past few months have been quite exciting for our Assessment and Testing SIG. We have successfully delivered three webinars as part of the series Assess smart with Albert. We would like to thank Prof. Albert Weideman for availing himself for these webinars. These webinars are available on our website at https://saalt.org.za/webinars/ This SIG also forms part of the Network of Expertise for Language Assessment (NExLA). For more information visit: https://nexla.org.za/

You are also welcome to join the SAALT Assessment and Testing WhatsApp Group simply by clicking here.

African Languages: Teaching the African Way

The Special Interest Group (SIG) on African Languages: Teaching the African Way is dedicated to advancing the teaching and learning of African languages in ways that affirm their cultural, linguistic, and pedagogical richness. The SIG provides a collaborative platform for educators, researchers, and practitioners to share innovative methodologies, grounded in African worldviews, that respond to the realities of multilingual classrooms. By promoting African languages as both subjects and mediums of instruction, the group seeks to strengthen literacy, preserve cultural heritage, and contribute to educational transformation in South Africa.

We are therefore inviting you to join this group to advance our African language education.

To join our WhatsApp group click here

Addressing Diverse Multilingual Classroom Realities

Through our Special Interest Group (SIG) on Addressing Diverse Multilingual Classroom Realities, we aim to create a community of practice among the lecturers, teachers, departmental officials and members of NGOs who celebrate our language diversity in South Africa and who view language as a resource and a responsibility. We would like to collaborate on projects to celebrate the wealth of our language repertoires and find innovative ways in which to develop and support all the languages in South Africa and to share research and best practices on how languages can be harnessed to promote learning

To join our WhatsApp group click here

Advancements in Technology: Language Teaching and Assessment

The Advancements in Technology: Language Teaching and Assessment Special Interest Group (SIG) is one of the exciting SAALT SIGs through which we aim to foster a forward-thinking community of practice—one that embraces innovation, critical dialogue, and collaborative exploration of digital tools in language education. Educators, researchers, and practitioners are welcome to join our WhatsApp community (click here), where updates, announcements, and entry points into our broader shared resource and collaboration space will be shared.

Call for Chapters

New Trends in Sociocultural Linguistics: Perspectives from South Africa

Editors: Malephole Sefotho, Collen Sabao & Mohammad Hossein Keshavarz

Sociocultural Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field that examines language in its social and cultural contexts, i.e., how society and culture shape our linguistic and social behavior. It aims to integrate insights from linguistic anthropology, discourse analysis, sociology of language, and other disciplines. It explores how language is used to construct social identity, negotiate power dynamics, and express cultural meaning. This handbook provides an outstanding platform for sharing innovative research findings on various sociocultural linguistic issues in diverse contexts and cultures. Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to, the following:

Language as Social Action: How language shapes and reflects social realities
Indexicality & Meaning: How words and expressions signal social identity and contextual meaning
Linguistic Marginalization: How certain speech styles are stigmatized or privileged in society.
Discursive Framing in the Media: How news and social media shape public perception through linguistic choices
Multimodal Discourse: How gestures, images, and technology contribute to meaning-making
Language Ideologies: Dominant beliefs about language and how they impact speakers
Memes & Sociocultural Meaning: How memes function as cultural artifacts in online discourse – how they shape discourse, humor, and cultural belonging
AI & Sociocultural Linguistics: How AI-generated texts reflect biases, ideologies, and human-like interaction
Humor & Social Identity: How humor constructs ingroup and outgroup dynamics
Digital Identity & Linguistic Practices: How people construct identities through social media language
Sociocultural Linguistics in Education: How classroom discourse shapes learning and identity
Language & Virtual Communities: How linguistic norms are used in gaming, fandoms, and online subcultures
Gender & Linguistic Practices: Gendered forms of communication and their role in societal power dynamics
Race, Ethnicity & Language: How language practices intersect with race, ethnicity, and cultural identity
Language & Identity: How do individuals construct social identities through speech, writing, and interaction
Globalization & Language Change: How global influences shape and reshape local languages and dialects
Social Media Linguistics: How hashtags, emojis, and internet slang shape modern communication
New Media & Language Evolution: The impact of TikTok, YouTube, or podcasts on linguistic practices
Global Market: How is language utilized as an economic resource in global markets
Linguistic Citizenship: How individuals claim rights through language use and policy

We welcome contributions from researchers in the field to submit original chapters on any of the above topics. The length of the book chapters can range from 7000 to 11,000 words, depending on the topic. First, please select a topic from the list above —or a closely related one— and submit a short proposal, along with your affiliation and a brief biodata (maximum 60 words), by 30 July 2026 to newtrendsinscling@gmail.com. The deadline for submitting full-length, fairly polished chapters for inclusion in the volume is 30 October 2026. Please be informed that the handbook will be published by an international publishing company.

We thank you in advance for your kind participation in this project and look forward to receiving your proposals soon.

Regards,

Malephole Sefotho
e-mail: Malephole.sefotho@nwu.ac.za

Collen Sabao
e-mail: csabao@unam.na

Mohammad Hossein Keshavarz
e-mail: m.h.keshavarz2026@gmail.com

Editors’ Profiles:

MALEPHOLE SEFOTHO is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the English Department in the School of Languages, Faculty of Humanities, at North-West University, South Africa. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Arts Honours in English Language & Linguistics and Literature in English, as well as a Master of Arts in English Language and Linguistics from the National University of Lesotho. She obtained her PhD in Applied Language Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Her research interests are situated within the fields of Sociolinguistics, Applied Linguistics, Pragmatics, Discourse Analysis, Reading comprehension, and Grammatical aspects. Her research critically engages with contemporary debates on multilingualism and linguistic diversity, foregrounding concepts such as languaging, translingualism, and Ubuntu translanguaging within the Global South context. She has published in both national and international peer-reviewed journals on topics including language policy, multilingual pedagogies/approaches, grammatical analysis and the integration of artificial intelligence in multilingual higher education contexts. Her work is underpinned by a strong commitment to epistemic and linguistic justice, advocating for the recognition and pedagogical utilisation of diverse linguistic repertoires while interrogating and challenging monoglossic colonial linguistic ideologies.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9170-5027

COLLEN SABAO is a Professor of Linguistics, Literature and Communication in the Department of Humanities and Arts at the University of Namibia, and a Research Associate in the Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages at the University of South Africa (UNISA). Prof. Sabao’s research interests lie in the areas of Phonetics and Phonology, Political Discourse, Media Discourse, Pan Africanism, Afrocentricity, Appraisal Theory, Argumentation, World Literatures and Rhetoric. He has published extensively in these areas, with articles and chapters in internationally refereed publications. His latest publications include Language Matters in Contemporary Zimbabwe (Routledge, 2024), African Englishes: Contemporary Trends and Sociolinguistic Shifts (Routledge, 2025), and Zimbabwean Women Writers: Writing the Nation (Routledge, 2026). He holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in English and Communication and a Master of Philosophy in Theoretical Linguistics from universities in Zimbabwe, a PhD in African Languages (Applied Linguistics) from Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and a Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education from the International University of Management (Namibia). He is also an American Council of Learned Societies Fellow’14 and an African Humanities Fellow ‘14. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6247-3741

MOHAMMAD HOSSEIN KESHAVARZ is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Head of ELT Department at Girne American University in North Cyprus. He holds an MA in Applied Linguistics and TEFL from Ohio University, USA, and a PhD from the University of Wales, UK. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed international journals, including Language in Society, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Pragmatics and Society, WORD, International Journal of Bilingualism, Educational Research, Contrastive Pragmatics, English for Academic Purposes, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Communication Disorders Quarterly, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Reading in a Foreign Language, and TESOL Journal. He is also the author of more than twenty academic books in English. His recently published books include: Politeness and Impoliteness in Persian (Springer Nature, 2026), The Handbook of Persian Carpets: Cultural and Semiotic Perspectives (Springer Nature, 2025), Contrastive Analysis, Error Analysis, and Interlanguage Hypothesis (6th Edition) (Rahnama Press, 2023), A New Analytical Model of Cultural Linguistics (Cambridge Scholars, 2023), and a Two-Volume Bilingual Dictionary (Rahnama Press, 2023). His research interests span First and Second Language Acquisition, Sociolinguistics, Pragmatics, Cultural Linguistics, Semiotics, and Contrastive Linguistics.