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Expert panel shares knowledge with UFS Department of Afrikaans

15 October 2019 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Rulanzen Martin

A hundred years after Afrikaans was first offered as part of the subject Dutch at the UFS in 1919, the department (the oldest Afrikaans language department in South Africa) appointed a practice panel. The panel consists of experts from the corporate world, namely an advocate, a teacher, a newspaper editor, and a publisher. They all have one thing in common, viz. their linguistic underpinnings and language qualifications, and their general emphasis on the need for language teaching and proficiency (also in Afrikaans) in the professional sector.

On Friday 4 October 2019, the practice panel, including Adv. Henriëtte Murray (senior advocate and acting judge in the Bloemfontein High Court), Gert Coetzee (editor of Volksblad), Estelle Zwiegers (Afrikaans teacher at Fichardt Park High School – subject adviser for the Free State from 2020), and Liezel Meintjes (chief executive officer of SUN MeDIA Bloemfontein) informed senior students and staff about the importance and relevance of language, language proficiency, and vocational demands in terms of language.

The panel was appointed for a term of three years. “We will annually invite the practice panel to the postgraduate meeting with new postgraduate students, as well as to an annual meeting with senior students and staff to reflect on new plans and opportunities for students regarding practice requirements,” says Prof Angelique van Niekerk, Head of the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French at the UFS.

Importance of language proficiency

‘The role of language in different professions’ was the topic of the discussion, during which panel members emphasised the importance of language proficiency. Language knowledge and proficiency form the essence of the legal profession. “Language proficiency is crucial to understand words not yet included in legal terminology,” Adv. Murray said. She also stressed that students should acquire the required language knowledge, since the interpretation of words could irrevocably affect people’s lives. Using examples from practice, she also pointed out the importance of teaching language structure (syntax and morphology).

As much as language proficiency is important in the legal profession, it is naturally also of great importance in journalism. Gert Coetzee, editor of Volksblad, has years of experience in the newspaper industry and considers the skilled ‘wordsmith’ as a great asset to fulfil the watchdog role of the media through a fascinating presentation of facts. Estelle Zwiegers, an Afrikaans teacher, emphasised the importance of language education at school level, saying that good knowledge and understanding of the way mother tongue is used for communication purposes, is of great value for learners – also at tertiary level.

With the appointment of this practice panel, the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French is responding to contextual changes in the tertiary education sector.

News Archive

Four modernised controlled environment cabinets inaugurated

2006-07-27

Photographed in a controlled environment cabinet were at the back from the left: Mr Adriaan Hugo (head of the UFS Electronics and Mechanisation Division), Prof Herman van Schalkwyk (Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS) and Prof Koos Terblans (lecturer at the UFS Department of Physics). In front is Mr Koos Uys (engineering consultant from Experto Designa who helped with the cooling systems of the cabinets).
Photo: Leonie Bolleurs

Different look for research in controlled circumstances at the UFS

Research in controlled circumstances at the University of the Free State (UFS) turned a new page today with the inauguration of four modernised controlled environment cabinets of the Department of Soil, Crop and Climate Sciences.

“The controlled environment cabinets, which are situated next to the glass houses on the eastern side of the Agriculture Building on the Main Campus in Bloemfontein, were installed in the early 1980’s. The cabinets, used for research purposes in controlled circumstances by the UFS for many years, became dysfunctional and needed to be repaired and put into use again,” said Prof Herman van Schalkwyk, Dean: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the UFS.

“The cabinets are used by the agronomics, horticulture and soil science divisions of the Department of Soil, Crop and Climate Sciences to control factors such as the temperature, the intensity and quality of light, synthesis and humidity. This is done 24 hours a day, with hourly intervals,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

The cabinets are ideally suited to determine the joint and separate effects of these factors on the growth of plants. The adaptability of plants to climate can also be investigated under controlled circumstances. All of this leads to a better understanding of the growth and development process of plants, more specifically that of agricultural crops.

“The effect of these environmental factors on the effectiveness of insect killers such as fungus killers, insecticide and weed killers can also be investigated and can help to explain the damage that is sometimes experienced, or even prevent the damage if the research is timeously,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

A new cabinet can cost between R2-3 million, depending on the degree of sophistication. “Although controlled environment cabinets have been used for agricultural research for a long time, it has become costly to maintain them and even more impossible to purchase new ones,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

According to Prof Van Schalkwyk the cabinets were re-built by die UFS Electronics and Mechanisation Division. Some of the mechanisms were also replaced and computerised.

“The re-building and mechanisation of the cabinets were funded by the faculty and because the work was done by our own staff, an amount of about R1 million was saved. The maintenance costs will now be lower as the cabinets are specifically tailor made for our research needs,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

Where all monitoring was done manually in the past, the cabinets can now be controlled with a computer. This programme was designed by Prof Koos Terblans from the UFS Department of Physics.

According to Prof Van Schalkwyk the modernisation of the cabinets is part of the faculty’s larger strategy to get its instruments and apparatus up to world standards. “With this project we have proved that we can find a solution for a problem ourselves and that there are ways to get old apparatus functional again,” said Prof Van Schalkwyk.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
26 July 2006

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