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22 September 2021
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Story Michelle Nöthling
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Photo Supplied
Annemarie Le Roux.
“I love working with children.” This is one of the first things Annemarie le Roux mentions when asked to describe herself. This love for children propelled Annemarie into the field of education and she graduated in 2006 with a BEd in Foundation Phase at the UFS. Annemarie immediately immersed herself in the Deaf community, enriching the lives of children at the Thiboloha School for the Deaf in Qwaqwa and the De la Bat School for the Deaf in Worcester.
The academic world enticed Annemarie back to the University of the Free State (UFS) and she was appointed as a junior lecturer in the Department of South African Sign Language (SASL) and Deaf Studies in 2013. Going from strength to strength, Annemarie completed her master’s degree in SASL in 2019, and published an
article earlier this year that she co-wrote with Marga Stander. In this article, they found that SASL “has become an increasingly popular language that hearing university students want to learn as a second language” and subsequently explored different teaching methods used for this emerging group of interested students.
Although now firmly established in academia, Annemarie is still committed to the practical application of SASL. “I am closely involved in student and community engagement through the
SIGNALS Sign Language student association that helps empower the Deaf community and South African Sign Language.” She also interprets for the Deaf community whenever she gets an opportunity, as well as for Deaf students in class and meetings.
On the importance of Sign Language and the recognition of the Deaf community in South Africa, Annemarie believes it will open greater opportunities for development. “More people will be able to learn SASL, and it might even become a subject in school for hearing children.”
UFS Historian honoured
2009-10-30
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Prof. André Wessels (pictured), a senior professor in and Chairperson of the University of the Free State’s Department of History, has been appointed as an extraordinary and distant Visiting Fellow at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in Canberra, Australia for two years; extraordinary and distant in the sense that he will not be physically working in Canberra, but will co-operate as far as possible with academic colleagues at ADFA, for example with regard to research. He is also welcome to visit ADFA at any stage. ADFA is a satellite campus of the University of New South Wales, and is regarded as one of the foremost military academies in the world. Apparently it is the first time that a South African scholar is honoured in this way.
Photo: Hannes Pieterse |