Johannes Sibeko

Dr Johannes Sibeko

Senior Lecturer

Modules:

AMA1001, LKH1000, BCE1120, LTTV420, LTTV400, and LAR500.

Area of expertise / Research interests:

"Text Readability; Corpus linguistics for low-resource languages; Digital Humanities and computational linguistics; Language assessment and educational measurement; 

Intellectualisation of indigenous African languages; AI applications in language processing".

Bio:

His research focuses on developing computational resources, readability measures, and assessment tools for low-resource African languages, addressing both educational and technological needs. He has published widely on corpus studies, and the intellectualisation of African languages, and collaborates across disciplines to create open-access tools and datasets that advance language technology in Southern Africa. 

Professional profiles:

• Linkedin
• Research Gate
• ORCID
• Google Scholar
• Personal

Research:

• Sibeko, J., & van Zaanen, M. (2025). Developing and testing syllabification systems for South African Sesotho. Language Resources and Evaluation, 59(2), 1577–1592.
• Sibeko, J., & Setaka-Bapela, M. (2024). Challenges in Intellectualizing Sesotho for Use in Academic Publications. The Journal of Electronic Publishing, 27(1).
• Sibeko, J., & van Zaanen, M., 2023. A Data Set of Final Year High School Examination Texts of South African Home and First Additional Language Subjects. Journal of Open Humanities Data, 9: 9, pp. 1–6. https://doi.org/10.5334/johd.108
• Sibeko, J., 2022. Tshebediso ya melao kabong ya dinoko tsa Sesotho. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 40(4), pp.494-506. https://doi.org/10.2989/16073614.2022.2149578
• Sibeko, J., 2021. A comparative analysis of the linguistic complexity of Grade 12 English Home Language and English First Additional Language examination papers. Per Linguam, 37(2), pp.50-64. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-perling_v37_n2_a5

• Sibeko, J. 2023. Developing Sesotho Readability Assessment: Challenges and Solutions. First Workshop on Readability for Low-Resourced Languages (RLRL 2023). 5 September 2023. ONLINE.
• Sibeko, J. and Lemeko, PA. 2023. Developing a Text Readability Corpus using Google Translate for Low-Resourced South African Indigenous Languages. Sol Plaatje University International Language Conference. 6 – 8 September 2023. Kimberley, Northern Cape, South Africa.
• Sibeko, J. and De Clercq, O. 2023. A Corpus-Based List of Frequently Used Words in Sesotho. Proceedings of the fourth workshop of Resources for African Indigenous Languages (RAIL), 2-6 May, Dubrovnik, Croatia. Association for Computational Linguistics.
• Sibeko, J. and Setaka, M. 2023. Evaluating the Sesotho rule-based syllabification system on Sepedi and Setswana words. Proceedings of the fourth workshop of Resources for African Indigenous Languages (RAIL), 2-6 May, Dubrovnik, Croatia. ACL.
• Sibeko, J. 2022. In Erjavec, T., and Eskevich, M (eds). CLARIN Annual Conference Proceedings, 10-12 October, Prague, Czechia. [PhD student paper].
• Sibeko, J. and van Zaanen. 2022. Developing a text readability system for Sesotho based on classical readability metrics. Digital Humanities DH2022 conference: Responding to Asian Diversity. July, 25 – 29, 2022. University of Tokyo, Japan. [Short paper]. pp. 571 – 572. see https://dh2022.dhii.asia/dh2022bookofabsts.pdf
• Sibeko, J. and van Zaanen M. 2021. An analysis of readability metrics on English exam texts. Proceedings of the International Conference of the Digital Humanities Association of Southern Africa 2021. November 29 – December 03. Virtual Conference. [Full Paper]. Abstract available at: https://dh2021.digitalhumanities.org.za/home/proceedings-and-book-of-abstracts/