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.”
AfriForum abandons urgent application to seek temporary interdict against the UFS
2016-03-29
The urgent application by AfriForum to seek a temporary interdict against the University of the Free State (UFS) in relation to its newly approved Language Policy in the High Court in Bloemfontein has been abandoned.
This was conveyed in a letter from AfriForum's attorneys to the attorneys acting for the UFS today.
The step follows correspondence in which the university refused to agree to any interim order against the Language Policy (approved by the university's Senate and Council in March 2016). Instead, the UFS proposed through its attorneys that both sides seek an expedited date to have the legality of the Language Policy determined by June 2016, in order for it to be timeously implemented in 2017 (should the court challenge be dismissed).
The senior leadership of the UFS welcomes the abandonment of the attempt by AfriForum to procure an urgent court order. The UFS is also glad that the timetable it proposed instead to have the validity of the Language Policy determined by the High Court on a final basis by June 2016, has been acceded to by AfriForum. The university community and public will be kept informed of further developments.