After completing a degree in Language Practice I worked as a classroom interpreter and freelance language practitioner. I started work at the NWU in 2007 as junior lecturer where I presented modules in Academic Literacy, Language Practice and English Linguistics. The modules that focussed on the influence of various linguistic theories on translation theory contributed to my interest in linguistics.

My research career started in 2008 when I investigated the factors that play a role in interpreters’ performance in the classroom. The research was influenced by my undergraduate studies in Language Practice. During this time, I developed an interest in linguistics. I pursued this interest in the completion of my master’s dissertation entitled Specificity in lexical verbs: a corpus-based lexicological study. In the dissertation I investigated lexical specificity in the communication verbs of Black South African English (BSAE) and first language (L1) English. Currently, I am working on my doctoral thesis in which I provide a collostructional analysis of the verb complementation patterns in BSAE.