Gerhard van Huyssteen (51) is a professor of Afrikaans linguistics and computer linguistics at the North-West University. His research focuses mostly on construction grammar (specifically Afrikaans morphology, and swearing in Afrikaans), with application in language standardization, and the development of human language technology (HLT) resources and applications for (mainly) Afrikaans. He served on the Language Commission of the South African Academy for Science and the Arts from 2005-2021, and was elected chair from 2013-2021.

Prof. Tobie van Dyk is an extensively published author of applied linguistic work, focusing on academic literacies theory and practice, academic reading and writing development, and in particular academic language ability testing. He is considered an authority in particularly the fields of academic literacies and language testing – all focus areas under the broad theme of language for specific purposes within applied linguistics.

After completing my BA degree, I enrolled for a BA Honours degree in Language Practice at the NWU’s Vanderbijlpark Campus, which I obtained with distinction. I then enrolled for my masters degree at the same institution, under the supervision of Dr Ia Esterhuizen and Prof. Haidee Kruger. The dissertation sprouted from two subjects that I completed in my Honours degree, namely editing and text linguistics combined with my own curiosity as to how writers and readers interact through written discourse; more specifically study guides.