Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
22 September 2021
|
Story Michelle Nöthling
|
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 strengthens EU cooperation
2010-04-22
 |
Seen here are, from the left: Prof. Ezekiel Moraka, Prof. Alain Verschoren, Rector of the University of Antwerp (UA), Prof. Aldo Stroebel, and Prof. Luc D’Haese, UA Presidential Steering Committee on Internationalisation, and UFS International Advisory Board Member.
Photo: supplied |
Prof. Ezekiel Moraka, Vice-Rector: External Relations, visited a number of institutions in Europe to strengthen collaboration and joint research activities. He was accompanied by Prof. Aldo Stroebel, Director: International Affairs. The Universities of Leuven and Ghent, both of which the UFS have longstanding and active agreements with, and both prominent research institutions, expressed their interest to expand and further support areas of collaboration in a number of disciplines.
The University of Antwerp, with whom the UFS has partnered in the pending Erasmus Mundus mobility partnership programme of the EU, was one of the main universities visited in the context of the Strategic Academic Clusters, long-standing collaboration in the areas of public health research and linguistics, and the exploration of international research funding opportunities.
Prof. Moraka was a special guest at the Going Global Conference in London hosted by the British Council in the session on Autonomy and Accountability: Achieving a balance between the needs of the State and tertiary education institutions. In addition, successful collaborative discussions were held at the Association for Commonwealth Universities (ACU) with Dr John Tarrant, Secretary-General, on funding opportunities for staff development and mobility support.