My research career started in 2009 when I began compiling the Historical Corpus of South African English, consisting of personal and business letters, news reportage, fiction and non-fiction from all over the country, and spanning from the 1820s to the present. I became more and more interested in the grammatical and semantic changes that occurred within this unique variety of English over time.

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.

I am a lecturer and researcher working in the field of linguistics, and a member of the UPSET research focus area, at the Vanderbijlpark Campus of the North-West University.