Prof Tobie van Dyk, a highly respected applied linguist from the School of Languages at the North-West University (NWU) has been seconded to the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) from 1 January to 31 December 2023.

“Prof van Dyk’s expertise in the field of applied linguistics and his well-established national and international networks are essential for SADiLaR to fulfill its mandate,” says Mr Juan Steyn, SADiLaR’s director of operations.

Language resources audit

Prof van Dyk’s expertise will be applied to several of SADiLaR’s mandates. This includes primary support with the National Language Resources Audit. This project is evidence of SADiLaR’s growing involvement and visibility in the national linguistic landscape, as it was commissioned by Universities South Africa (USAf) to support the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) with a language resources audit at all 26 public universities in South Africa.

“I’m extremely excited about the secondment to SADiLaR as the design and development of language resources for use in different contexts and for different purposes and the advancement of multilingualism lie very close to my heart. Also, it affords me the opportunity to strengthen existing relationships and networks, and to establish new ones,” says Prof van Dyk.

Sustainability of research infrastructure

In addition to providing general support with regard to engagement, networking and raising awareness of SADiLaR’s resources and services, as well as mentorship, Prof van Dyk’s secondment will also provide valuable insight in a broader process of secondment to SADiLaR’s research infrastructure.

“From this we will establish a new baseline for ways in which the SADiLaR can draw on research expertise in a way that is more hands-on and with higher impact than the previous visiting scholar model,” says Juan.

Prof Langa Khumalo, executive director of SADiLaR, affirms this. “Sustainability of research infrastructures such as SADiLaR is an ongoing concern in South Africa. As part of the South African research infrastructure roadmap, we need to ensure broad national impact of our work over the next five years, and this means bringing on board all the skills and expertise available to us. We look forward to Prof van Dyk’s contributions in this regard.”

 Prof Tobie van Dyk