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13 August 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Supplied
Prof Albert Weideman
Prof Albert Weideman has designed language tests for South African institutions as well as universities in Namibia, Vietnam, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Australia

Prof Albert Weideman became involved in language testing in the 1980s and almost 40 years later, the South African Association for Language Teaching (SAALT) has now honoured him with a Lifetime Achievement Award for “his contribution to research and practice in applied linguistics, test design, and curriculum development in academic literacy”.

“It’s a wonderful honour to be recognised in one’s field in this way and I am humbled by the many congratulatory messages I have received from as far afield as the Netherlands, the US and Australia,” says Prof Weideman, senior research fellow in the Department of South African Sign Language and Deaf Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS). 

“I wish to dedicate it to the many dozens of MA students I have had, as well as to the many talented PhD students I have supervised,” he said upon receiving the award at the SAALT conference which was held at the University of Pretoria recently. 

Pioneer in the field of language assessment 

“His creative designs have enhanced the quality of academic literacy tests in South Africa,” says Prof Theodorus du Plessis, head of the Department of South African Language and Deaf Studies. The language courses which Prof Weideman has developed have been used at beginner, intermediate and advanced level, as well as for introducing teachers to innovations in language teaching.

During his career Prof Weideman has witnessed an interesting change in the assessment of language: “The focus of language testing has shifted from testing the so-called ‘skills’ of reading, writing, listening and speaking, to measuring communicative ability,” he says. 

He is very excited about the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on language teaching, specifically when it comes to “computer adaptive language testing, and language-course delivery in a multiplicity of new media.”


News Archive

Seminar on mediation and peacemaking in Southern Africa
2011-09-21

Our university will join universities from five other African countries at a seminar in Lusaka, Zambia, from 23 - 25 September 2011, to discuss mediation and peacemaking in Southern Africa.  The Osaka University from Japan will also be present at the seminar.

The seminar follows the conceptualisation of a programme entitled the Southern Africa Oasis of Peace Project by Prof. Hussein Solomon, Senior Professor in Political Science at our university, and Prof. Virgil Hawkins from Osaka University. The project aims to build networks between academics across the world who work in the broad field of conflict resolution and to offer good practical suggestions to policy makers on how to achieve sustainable peace in the Southern African region.
 
Prof. Solomon will deliver a paper on mediation within the context of a war, presenting the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), at the seminar. Senior academics from the universities of Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Dar-es-Salaam, Stellenbosch and Pretoria will also deliver presentations.
 
Prof. Solomon said that amongst the envisaged outputs of the seminar are a journal and regular conferences to bring together academics and policy makers.

The Southern Africa Oasis of Peace Project is being funded by the Asia Africa Science Platform Programme and the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science.

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