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A A L A
SOUTHERN AFRICAN APPLIED LINGUISTICS ASSOCIATION est.1980
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Thanks to Rhodes First, a rather belated but very appreciative "thank you" to the Rhodes University Organising Committee for their hospitality at our July conference and for their efficient organisation of a most stimulating occasion. We had an extremely productive few days which I'm sure will inspire our work in the coming months. One of the highlights of the conference was the presence of so many international delegates attending as representatives of AILA - for us it was a chance to exchange ideas and to network more widely and for them it was an opportunity to experience first hand the diverse linguistic activity taking place in the South African context. We hope that these new associations will continue to be of mutual benefit to us all. New executive As you can see from the changed letterhead, the new SAALA Executive, elected at the conference, has now taken office and will be in place until the next conference to be held in July next year. We are also pleased to welcome Dr Ben Magura as a co-opted member of the executive. Ben is at the University of Botswana, which broadens the representation on the executive and gives us an additional opportunity to network with other African universities. If anyone has any questions or suggestions in relation to SAALA, please don't hesitate to contact me or other executive members.
The theme of next year's conference, which will be held from the 8th -10th July on the Pietermaritzburg campus, is Partnerships in Diversity: Linguistic and Cultural Perspectives. We have two exciting pieces of news about it so far. The first, which is implied by the heading, is that next year for the first time, the conference will be a combined LSSA/SAALA initiative. This is the first time the organisations have joined forces in this way and we are hoping that it will be the beginning of a much closer association between them. We are planning to share all plenary sessions and then to organise four parallel sessions throughout each day which will cater for all delegates' interests. The first call for papers will be sent out in a few weeks so please start thinking about your abstracts now! The second piece of news is that Prof. Ruqaiya Hasan, who will be giving one of the key note addresses at the conference, will be offering a four day workshop immediately preceding it (3-7 th July 2001). Her topic is Understanding language in relation to teaching and learning The purpose of this workshop is to increase an understanding amongst tertiary and secondary school language educators of the interrelationship between social structures, educational processes and language. Prof Hasan will include a consideration of her research into everyday talk between mothers and their young children, within a theoretical framework combining Vygotskian understandings of learning, Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics and Bernstein's sociological insights. The implications of her insights for language development in local classrooms will also be critically explored. Places for this workshop will be limited to 30, so if you are interested in attending and would like to book your place early, please E-mail Mike Hart at HartM@nu.ac.za . He will be co-ordinating the workshop and will answer any queries that you have. We will send further information with the first call for papers. New SAALA website After extensive enquiries about various website options (all conducted in a new and fascinating language!) we have discovered a wonderful team of IT people at Unisa who are willing to set up a permanent SAALA website on their server using our own organisational name. In addition to all this, their services are absolutely free to non-profit making oraganisations. So, thanks to the Unisa IT team we can watch for www.saala.org.za from about the middle of December. SAALT Conference SAALT is holding its thirty-fifth annual conference on the Durban between 6th and 8th July next year, dates especially chosen so that those of us who want to attend two conferences back-to back can do so. Please diarise this date. Report from the treasurer: The challenge which the Association has provided me has certainly made me aware of what auditors are faced with on a daily basis....! Nevertheless, thanks to the assistance of a good auditor, Mr Boela Swanepoel of Unisa's Department of Auditing, I seem to be coming to grips with what this multifaceted job involves! My report to the AGM at Rhodes on 10 July 2001 included an update as to where we are financially, but for those who were unable to attend this wonderful conference and in turn the AGM, let me fill you in. Our money was held in an account in Cape Town by the previous Treasurer and we finally managed to get it transferred to Pretoria in January this year. Initially signing powers on our account created some difficulty since I am far from the other members of the Executive, but Dr Lily Pretorius of the Department of Linguistics at Unisa and a member of SAALA kindly agreed to be coopted to the Executive and we now have joint signing powers. Unfortunately our paid-up membership remains below 100. We really need to work on this aspect since this is our main source of income, apart from a possible conference surplus which we cannot always rely on. For those fortunate enough to be at the Rhodes conference they would have realised just what a benefit it is to be a member of SAALA. Maybe our present members can spread the good word....? Another decided advantage for being a member of SAALA is our Journal which has been combined with the LSSA and there have been some excellent articles. However, from a Treasurer's point of view we are heavily loaded by having to pay R91,20 for each member's copy. We also have to pay our international membership fee to AILA which is $6 per member and with the rate of exchange at the moment you will appreciate that the Association is subsidising its members! Nevertheless our assets stand at more than R30 000,00. We have therefore transferred some funds into a money market account, as was suggested at the AGM. Because of this "money in the bank" position, our increase in membership fees for 2002 will not be as high as we might have proposed. This credit in our account is due largely to our previous two conference organisers at Stellenbosch and Rhodes. However, should there be a substantial decline in the value of the rand over the next months we may have to increase the membership fees again in 2003, but let us be positive for the time being and rather encourage membership. You get true value for money by being a member of SAALA! It now remains for me to wish all our members a happy and relaxed festive season! Rosalie Finlayson SAALA Constitution As some of you already know, members of the executive have all been in hot pursuit of the missing SAALA constitution, so far with no luck at all. Please, if anyone has a copy of this elusive document would you let me know as soon as possible. Rosalie in particular has had enormous difficulty trying to negotiate bank accounts without it. Journal We are very pleased to welcome the new editor of the recently combined LSSA/SAALA Journal, Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, Bertus van Rooy. Bertus has been making enquiries into our status in terms of SAPSE accreditation and discovered that in fact, although both the former journals were accredited, the new one is not. He has been quick to try and remedy this situation but can only apply for accreditation next April. We are, however, hoping that in the light of past accreditation we may still be able to speed up the process or alternatively have new accreditation granted retrospectively. The SAALA executive was under the impression that the new journal had been accredited so this situation is disappointing. I have no doubt that it will be rectified but it may take longer than we had hoped. I will keep everyone informed of any new developments. This has been a hectic year for many of us - I hope everyone has the chance to relax for the next few weeks in preparation for the new year. Best wishes for a peaceful festive season Jenny Clarence-Fincham |