Sandile Gxilishe is at present an Emeritus Associate Professor in the School of Languages and Literature at the University of Cape Town. He studied at Essex (UK), Stellenbosch and Columbia Universities. His chief interests are acquisition research in both first and second language as well as first- and second-language teaching and learning. He has published widely in the areas of child language development, first- and second-language learning and sociolinguistics. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Stigting vir Bemagting deur Afrikaans (SBA) and also a member of the Ministerial Steering Committee in the Afrikaans Project.