Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
Categories
UFS News Media Release Research
Years
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Months
January February March April May June July August September October November December
Previous Archive
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

UFS academic delivers inaugural lecture on challenges confronting political science in the 21st century
2012-10-12

Prof. Hussein Solomon.
Photo: Stephen Collett
12 October 2012

This week Prof. Hussein Solomon, Senior Professor in the Department of Political Studies and Governance delivered his inaugural lecture on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS).

In his lecture, “Challenges confronting political science in the 21st century, A South African perspective”, Prof. Solomon explored five challenges to academic political science in general and to South African political scientists in particular.

The challenges include the need to localise international relations theory with an emphasis on the emancipatory dimensions; exploring the nexus between technology and politics; incorporating political anthropology into mainstream political science syllabi; rising to the challenge of governing Africa’s cities; and the dangers of over-specialisation in an era that demands the use of a broader academic lens.

According to Prof. Solomon, political science has come a long way from those heady days in 1950 when Lasswell could confidently state that politics was about who gets what, when and how.

“Indeed, the world of 2012 scarcely resembles the world of 1950. Immanuel Wallerstein was correct in his assessment that the modern world system is coming to an end. As political scientists, we need to interrogate our existing knowledge constructs in relation to this rapidly changing reality. We need to indigenise international relations theory and emphasise creating an emancipatory and counter-hegemonic discourse.

We need to explore the nexus between technology and politics to deepen our democracy by empowering the margins in our societies. We need to embrace political anthropology as we strive to understand non-Western forms of governance. We need to use these understandings of traditional societies as we create hybrid forms of urban governance that stress inclusivity as we overcome the politics of identity and difference. We need to heed the call of De Tocqueville and create a new political science to understand the new times by supplementing disciplinary insights with those from other disciplines. In doing so, political science will once more regain its relevance to humanity in the twenty-first century,” Prof. Solomon said.
 

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept