It will definitely not be said that March 2020 was a month where nothing happened. It was a roller coaster ride of a month and I do not think anybody saw the month ending the way it did, when it first started.

Despite the uncertain social climate, there were still a few exciting collaborations that took place between SADiLaR and other organizations. Even though some of our own events had to be placed on hold or cancelled, the great work that SADiLaR is doing has not come to a stand still.

From the Communication team we would like to thank every SADiLaR employee for their continued hard work during this time and wish you and your families only good health in this time.

Don't get disheartened, keep the sanitizers close by and stay safe!

Warm Regards

The Communication Team

Learning all that article writing can be

Ten of SADiLaR's researchers attended a writing workshop at The Roots Lifestyle Venue on Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 March 2020. The writing workshop was presented by the distinguished and experienced Kerlick team consisting of Graham Baker and Elisabeth Lickindorf. Personally I can say without a doubt that I learned a lot with regards to article publishing, being prudent when choosing a journal and also writing an inviting abstract so your reader wants to read your article. It was immensely helpful to dedicate two full days talking and structuring an academic publication. The value of the workshop cannot be overstated, it showed me what dedication and detailed planning could contribute to the endeavor of article writing.

The TALC Project Workshop

SADiLaR sponsored a workshop hosted by the TALC project on the 11th and 12th of February 2020. This workshop focused on aiding researchers focusing on the participating disciplines Speech and Language Therapy, (Computer)linguistics, Engineering and Computer Science. Setsipane Mokoduwe, the Head of the International Cooperation Division at the University of Pretoria and Lisette Andreae of the German embassy in South Africa were opening the workshop. The workshop aimed to compare each disciplines view on the topic of “transcription and analysis of (child) language data”, identify interdisciplinary interfaces and connect the German and South African pilot study. 

Language at the center of the fourth industrial revolution

“The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents a fundamental change in the way we live, work and relate to one another. It is a new chapter in human development, enabled by extraordinary technology advances commensurate with those of the first, second and third industrial revolutions” 

Digital Humanities Professor and researcher, Menno van Zaanen recently wrote an article published on Litnet about the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on language and the development thereof.

Read the article here: 

CODATA-RDA Summer School: Pretoria 2020

SADiLaR was one of the sponsers of a Summer School recently hosted by the University of Pretoria's Department of Information Science. Have a look at the video of the event below: