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.

In a beautiful booklet which can be downloaded at the end of this post. there is a biography of the beloved Prof. Johannes Lenake by Prof Susan Coetzee-Van Rooy, a close friend and colleague (UPSET, NWU). Spanning more than eleven pages, messages from colleagues and collaborators bear testimony to the enormous impact he had on people's lives, and to the love and respect for this remarkable man.  During his career he wrote 16 school books in Southern Sotho, 14 academic handbooks for Southern Sotho, and a substantial offering of Afrikaans and English material used in schools. But this is just part of who he was. Prof. Coetzee-Van Rooy tells of anecdotes during the apartheid era and concludes:

During its 2016 Conference, SAALT bestowed a lifetime award on Prof. Lenake for his contribution to language teaching in South Africa. 

The Journal for Language Teaching provides a quality outlet of language teaching research that adds value to this field that is unique. This is an important role in light of the relationship between language and academic success in South Africa, says the editor, Prof. Tobie van Dyk, as quoted in a report from the Academy of Science of South Africa. This year the Journal was subjected to independent scrutiny  by the Committee on Scholarly Publishing in South Africa. 

With the COVID-19 pandemic globally schooling now occurs at home.
 
As parents and caregivers we are now the custodians of our children’s learning and we are partnering with teachers to support children to learn to think about content.
 
But how can we be useful to guide our children to learn?

​Dear Colleagues 
It is with regret that we have to inform you of the Organising Committee’s decision to postpone the SALALS/SAALT 2020 Conference that was to be hosted in June/July this year. 

​CANCELLED: Please note that the conference has been postponed until 2021. See: http://www.saalt.org.za/blog/salalssaalt-2020-conference-postponed

The Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria plans to host an interdisciplinary conference on  children’s literature and storytelling in Africa. The conference will take place at the Future Africa Centre on the university’s tranquil Hillcrest campus from 30th to 31st March, 2020.

English language teacher representatives of the four regions of Gauteng Department of Education (GDE), academics, DBE and GDE officials,  and others vested in promoting English language teaching and learning packed the hall of Parktown Boy’s High School on 02 June 2019.

Special issue: Journal for Language Teaching, Volume 53, Number 2
Topic: Teaching academic writing in a multimodal era

Literacy is inextricably bound to an array of social, technological and economic factors. According to Kress (2003) two specific influences have given rise to a revolution in the uses and effects of modes and media for representing and communicating at almost every level and in every domain: the global move from the dominance of writing to the dominance of the image, and the move from the dominance of the medium of the printed document to the medium of the screen – computer, tablet, and cell phone.

Who taught you to read and write? No doubt a teacher!  Who encouraged you to keep on walking or brought you back on track? No doubt a teacher!

For 2018, the UNESCO adopted the theme: "The right to education means the right to a qualified teacher.”

SAALT salutes all teachers who — often under difficult and very trying circumstances — carry out their professional duties.  We appreciate the importance of what you do and how you inspire the learners and students of our country! 

"The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." — William Arthur Ward

"Education is the most powerful tool we can use to change the world." — Nelson Mandela
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