UAL features prominently at SAALA/SALALS Conference

Posted on September 19, 2019

The Unit for Academic Literacy co-organised the joint annual conference of the Southern African Association for Language Teachers (SAALT) and the Southern African Linguistics and Applied Linguistics Association (SALALS), which took place from 30 June to 04 July 2019 at the Groenkloof campus of the University of Pretoria. The main theme of the conference was Indigenous languages in contemporary African society.

The UAL acted as the host for two of the keynote speakers, Prof. Francis B. Nyamnjoh (University of Cape Town), and Prof. Béatrice Fraenkel (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris).

Professor Nyamnjoh is professor of Social Anthropology, a B1 rated NRF researcher, and Chair of the Editorial Board of the South African Human Sciences Research Council Press. His engaging keynote address on 1 July was titled ‘Amos Tutuola as a quest hero for endogenous Africa: actively anglicising the Yoruba language and yorubanising English’.

                                  Prof. Francis Njamnjoh

 

Prof. Fraenkel’s keynote address, titled ‘Graphic Acts: gestures, spaces, postures’, introduced a half-day symposium on 3 July on Language – Institution – Ecology. She noted how that, among the resources writing offers for action, graphic resources are largely underestimated, and proposed a preliminary identification of typical, elementary graphic acts. The final part of her address explored writings during times of social upheaval to indicate how written environments enable the deployment of situationally appropriate aesthetic forces.

The symposium was chaired by Dr William Kelleher, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Unit for Academic Literacy. Apart from the keynote address, the programme included a presentation by Dr Kelleher on the topic of ‘An ecological critical approach that seeks a new role for sociolinguistics in the shadow of climate change’, a video presentation by Arran Stibbe (University of Gloucestershire) on Ecolinguistics, and a round table discussion on ‘Language, institution and ecology’.

                               Dr Kelleher and Prof. Fraenkel

Other papers by UAL staff were ‘Advice on the use of gestures in presentation skills manuals: Alignment between theory, research and instruction’ by Prof Adelia Carstens, and ‘Theoretical and epistemological grounding of writing centre practices: A foundation for tutor training’, jointly authored by Prof Carstens and Dr Avasha Rambiritch.

     Prof. Kris van de Poel from the University of Antwerp and Prof. Adelia Carstens at the welcoming function.

   

 

 

 

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