South African Applied Linguistics Association

Transcription

1 South African Applied Linguistics Association Chairperson s Report 1. Welcome On behalf of the SAALA Executive, we welcome all members (and potential members) to the SAALA AGM. My apologies for not being able to attend the joint LSSA/SAALA conference in Bloemfontein, or the AGM, as I am attending a conference in Sweden. Many thanks to Esther for reporting on behalf of the SAALA executive. 2. Growing membership of SAALA SAALA s membership has been dwindling over the years (in 2011 year we had only 43 paid-up members and 12 associate members). We need to encourage previous members as well as potential new and younger members involved in the practice and teaching of applied linguistics to rejoin/join SAALA. All of us would like to see membership increase beyond the current numbers, and halt the steady decline in membership over previous years. In an effort to attract more members to SAALA, we have kept the annual membership fee of R unchanged. LSSA members may join as associate members by paying only R annually. SAALA Treasurer, Esther Ramani has sent out a mid-year reminder to SAALA members, and others, requesting them to renew their members and/or to join SAALA. Thanks are due to Esther for her the efforts to grow SAALA s membership, and many thanks to those who have encouraged colleagues and students to join SAALA. 3. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Linguistics Studies (SALALS) One of the benefits of membership has been the inclusion of a SALALS subscription with full SAALA membership. We encourage all SAALA members to contribute to the journal which is published four times a year, and is both ISI and DHET accredited. 4. SAALA Website There have been complaints about the website not being updated regularly. There are unfortunately no funds to do this; maintenance and updating is done by a volunteer whenever new material is sent to member of the SAALA executive (which is not very often). The incoming SAALA Executive could consider using funds or finding sponsorship in order to revitalise the website (current website: which links to 5. Proposal: Public Participation in Education Network (PPEN) PPEN is a group of people who have been meeting for over a year to consider ways to address the crisis in South African education, and have finally decided to launch court action against the Department of Education. PPEN feel that many teachers, lecturers, parents and learners want to take part in some action that might bring about needed changes in our schools. SAALA members are asked to consider supporting the initiative taken by PPEN (Esther to elaborate). 1

2 6. Proposals for Special Interest Groups (SIGs) Professor Albert Weideman suggested that SAALA consider the establishment of SIGs as a way of supporting the many diverse constituencies who work in the broad areas of applied linguists and applied language studies (Albert Weideman to elaborate). 5. LSSA/SAALA conference 2013 The 2013 joint LSSA/SAALA Conference will be hosted by Stellenbosch University; Tobie van Zyl will be the conference convener. 6. LSSA/SAALA conference 2014 The Department of Linguistics at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg has offered to host the joint LSSA/SAALA conference in Contact person: Prof. Tommaso M. Milani, Ph.D. Associate Professor Co-editor Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies Co-editor Advances in Sociolinguistics - Continuum Press Department of Linguistics University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg AILA 2014 The AILA 2014 World Congress will be held August 2014 Brisbane Convention Centre ( If SAALA wishes to be an AILA affiliate, the attached form with up-to-date information about SAALA should be completed and ed to Dr. Christina Gitsaki, AILA treasurer, as a Word attachment (no pdf files should be sent). The AILA fees are US$2.5 per member. Contact details: Dr. Christina Gitsaki, UNESCO Chair, Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology, UAE Executive Treasurer, International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA) Co-convenor, AILA 2014 World Congress, August 2014 Brisbane Convention Centre 2

3 7. New SAALA executive 2012/2013 A new SAALA executive needs to be elected. The current executive consists of: Chairperson: Chris Winberg (winbergc@cput.ac.za) (Please note that I am not available for reelection, due to pressures of work). Vice chairperson/secretary: Caroline Kerfoot (caroline.kerfoot@biling.su.se) Treasurer: Esther Ramani (ramani@ul.ac.za) 8. Thanks On behalf of all SAALA members, the SAALA Executive expresses thanks to Albert Weideman, Susan Brokensha and the organizing team at UFS for their hard work in making the joint LSSA/SAALA 2012 Conference a success. Chris Winberg 15 June

4 APPENDIX A Information Sheet for Applied Linguistics Association Please complete the following table with the required information and send document as soon as possible to christina.gitsaki@hct.ac.ae Country Association Website Executive Board (President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer) Please provide Name, Title, Affiliation and for each member and indicate when the term of office for each member expires Date of last Annual Conference Date of forthcoming Annual Conference Membership (number of current members) Membership renewal (which month is the start of the calendar year for membership?) Publication(s) (does the Association publish a regular Journal, Newsletter, Magazine, etc. Please provide details Title, Frequency of Publication, Website, Editor(s), electronic and/or hard copy, etc.) AILA Fee Payment Method (Credit Card, Bank Remittance, other?) Comments, Requests, Feedback for the AILA Executive Board 4

5 Example: Country Association Website Executive Board (President, Vice- President, Secretary, Treasurer) Please provide Name, Title, Affiliation and for each member and indicate when the term of office for each member expires Australia ALAA (Applied Linguistics Association of Australia) President (2012) Professor Tony Liddicoat University of South Australia Vice-President (2012) Dr Honglin Chen The University of Wollongong Treasurer (2012) Dr Michael Harrington The University of Queensland Secretary (2012) Professor Anne Burns University of New South Wales Date of last Annual Conference July 2010 Date of forthcoming Annual Conference 30 th Nov. 1 st Dec Membership (number of current members) Membership renewal (which month is the start of the calendar year for membership?) Publication(s) (does the Association publish a regular Journal, Newsletter, Magazine, etc. Please provide details Title, Frequency of Publication, Website, Editor(s), electronic and/or hard copy, etc.) AILA Fee Payment Method (Credit Card, Bank Remittance, other?) 198 December ARAL Journal, published 3 times a year, hard and electronic copy. Editor: Dr Carsten Roever, araleditor@gmail.com Credit Card (VISA) Comments, Requests, Feedback for the AILA Executive Board 5

6 APPENDIX B Minutes of the SAALA AGM Rhodes University, Grahamstown 27 June 2011 ATTENDANCE: Ralph Adendorff, Zannie Bock, Susan Brockensha, Susan Coetzee-van Rooy, Theo du Plessis, Sally Hunt, Michael Joseph, Caroline Kerfoot (Secretary), Charlotte Mbali, Tommaso Milani, Jackie Naude (JN), Esther Ramani (ER)(Treasurer), Tobie van Dyk, Albert Weideman, Chris Winberg (CW) (Chair), Jenny Wright, Britta Zawada. APOLOGIES: Rosemary Wildsmith-Cromarty 1. Welcome CW welcomed all SAALA members and visitors. 2. Chairperson s report 2.1 Membership There are currently extremely few SAALA members; a membership drive is required. 2.2 Conferences 2012 The 2012 Conference will be hosted by UFS with the theme Diversity and Complexity with Susan Brokensha as convenor. The 2013 Conference will be hosted by Stellenbosch University; Tobie van Zyl will be the conference convener. Members greatly appreciated the feedback given on abstracts for this 2011 conference and requested that this be done again in future. 2.3 SAALA Website CW provided a brief report on the SAALA website, which is now functional. Links to previous conferences sites have been created, as well as to the journal SALALS. The website address is It was suggested that conference abstracts for the last 3 years be loaded onto the website as pdf files. 2.4 SALALS issues (see item 4 below) 3. Treasurer s report 3.1 Account status There is approximately R13, in the SAALA account. Given the lack of funds, the accounts could not be audited but a report was nevertheless tabled and accepted with the proviso that ER undertake to consult a book-keeper and resubmit the report after this person has signed off the accounts. 3.2 Membership There are currently extremely few SAALA members; ER felt that a membership drive was required. Suggestions were also made that rated researchers could fund workshops, small regional conferences, or interest groups in order to add value to membership. The SAALA executive should re-engage with HELTASA, RASA and other similar associations to see whether they cannot be encouraged to form part of SAALA. 3.3 Membership fees It was decided that memberships fees would remain at R350 (including a hard copy of the SAALA journal) and R250 (excluding the journal). Members should receive a discount on conference 6

7 registration fees. Membership should also be extended to southern Africa, but the cost of bank fees for money transfers needs to be taken into consideration. 3.4 Donation Albert Weideman pledged to donate R10,000 to SAALA over the next 3 years and challenged others, especially rated researchers, who have access to research cost centres to do the same. 3.5 Possible additional SAALA account ER will follow up with Rose Finlayson on whether an additional SAALA FNB account exists. 4. SALALS Matters 4.1 Presentation by Jackie Naude (full report available on the SAALA website) Publishing schedule JN updated the meeting on the SALALS publishing schedule, including special editions planned for 2011 and (Please visit the SALALS website for more information) Length of time taken by reviewers Many reviewers take a long time provide their reviews, which causes delays in the publishing schedule Quality of submissions The quality of the writing/textual organisation of some submissions was weak, and needed extensive editing and feedback from reviewers. It was felt that this was a contributing factor to the long review time Impact of SALALS JN provided information with regard to the frequency of downloading of articles, the acceptance and rejection rates, etc. Request for JN to attend National Scholarly Editor s Forum of SA SAALA supported JN s attendance, but was unable to provide financial assistance SALALS Editors (for Applied Linguistics) Because the majority of submissions are in the field of Applied Linguistics, JN felt that additional editors were necessary. The following editors were proposed and elected by the SAALA AGM: Rosemary Wildsmith-Cromarty (UKZN) term to be extended Susan Brokensha (UFS) Tommaso Milani (WITS) The Editors are ex officio members of the SAALA Executive Committee. It was further agreed that editors terms would in general be 4 years. 4.2 General SAALA issues (raised in discussion) Reviewers for submissions The length of time taken by reviewers was raised as a concern. It was requested that SAALA members provide names of potential SA and international editors Book reviews JN s report highlighted the importance and popularity of book reviews; however this is not funded by the DHET as, for example, journal articles are funded Journal costs and page fees It was agreed that SAALA membership fees could include or exclude hard copies of the SALALS journal. All authors, whether or not they are members of SAALA, should pay page fees Meetings of editorial staff and executive committee with editors of other linguistic associations to discuss issues such as the ethics of submissions and reviewing. 7

8 It was agreed that where possible funds should be made available for such meetings or, failing this, that meetings should be held by Skype or teleconference Editorial assistant JN indicated that SAALA may need to contribute 1/3 of the costs of an editorial assistant from SAALA Executive Committee 2011/2012 The following were elected to serve on the SAALA Executive committee Chairperson: Chris Winberg Vice Chairperson: Caroline Kerfoot Treasurer: Theo du Plessis Secretary: A. Tlowane 8