Dr Jennifer Smith
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Teacher Education & Leadership
Biography
Jennifer spent 12 months living in Japan and attending high school as a Rotary Exchange student after finishing school in Australia. This experience began Jennifer’s fascination with language learning. Returning to Australia after her exchange, Jennifer completed a double major in Japanese at the University of Newcastle and her Diploma of Education at the University of Queensland. She started her teaching career as a Secondary teacher of Japanese at an Independent school on the Sunshine Coast. Over time she moved around the state of Queensland while working as a primary school teacher of Japanese in Cloncurry, Cairns and Brisbane.
After 20 plus years of teaching, Jennifer decided to return to study at QUT gaining her Master of Education (TESOL) and Educational Doctorate. Her thesis was about rethinking homework for primary school foreign language teaching and learning. Presently, she is enjoying teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students at QUT.
Personal details
Positions
- Lecturer
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Teacher Education & Leadership,
School of Teacher Education & Leadership
Discipline
Curriculum and Pedagogy, Specialist Studies in Education
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008
Qualifications
Doctor of Education (Queensland University of Technology), Master of Education (TESOL) (Queensland University of Technology), Graduate Certificate in Education (TESOL) (Queensland University of Technology)
Professional memberships and associations
Applied Linguistics Association of Australia (ALAA)
Primary English Teaching Association Australia (PETAA)
Queensland Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (QATESOL)
Teachers and Teaching Research Group (TTRG)
Research Interests| teaching and learning foreign languages in particular Japanese, teaching EAL/D learners, second language teaching and learning, embedding the teaching of intercultural understanding, using technology in second language learning, video data collection using iPads with children, foreign language homework
Teaching
- EUN643 Theory and practice of second language teaching and learning (MEd)
- LCN614 Grammar for Second Language Teaching (MEd)
- EUB310 Teaching EAL/D learners (BEd Secondary)
- EUN103 Teaching EAL/D learners (MTeach)
- EUB405 Teaching EAL/D learners (BEd Primary)
Dr Jennifer Smith’s teaching has been recognised in a number of Faculty of Education awards:
• 2017 Real World Teaching Award
• 2018 Sessional Academic Award
She also regularly presents on effective teaching practices for foreign language teachers such as:
• Rethinking homework: What Japanese language teachers need to know about homework (2019, Japanese Network Conference)
• Languaging: A mediational tool for foreign language homework (2018, ALAA Conference)
• Scaffolding primary school Language homework for Language learning (2018, MLTAQ Conference)
• TV as a tool for intercultural understanding (2017, AFLMTA Conference)
• Skyping in the foreign language classroom (2014, MLTAQ Conference)
Experience
Jennifer has a keen interest in how second languages are acquired and second language teaching and learning. Drawing on her own experiences as a Rotary Exchange student who had no understanding of Japanese before she landed in Japan, Jennifer understands what it is like to be a second language learner in an educational institution. Combined with her Master of Education (TESOL) qualifications and experience teaching in mainstream classrooms, Jennifer has been teaching about English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D) learners to undergraduate and postgraduate students at QUT since 2016. She also has experience teaching second language teaching methodology in the Master of Education (TESOL) course.
Jennifer regularly contributes to her field through conference presentations such as:
Rethinking homework: What Japanese language teachers need to know about homework, Japanese Network (2019)
Languaging: A mediational tool for foreign language homework, ALAA (2018).
Languaging: How foreign language students get their homework done when they are home alone! BNU (2018).
Methodology: Using iPads to collect video data with children, HDR RECON, QUT (2018).
Investigating foreign language homework: Using iPads to collect video data with primary school children, SPARK, QUT (2018).
Scaffolding primary school Language homework for Language learning, MLTAQ (2018).
TV as a tool for intercultural understanding, AFLMTA (2017).
Skyping in the foreign language classroom, MLTAQ (2014).
Publications
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Jennifer, explore their research on ePrints (our digital repository).
Awards
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2020
- Details
- Faculty of Education Outstanding Thesis Award
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2018
- Details
- Faculty of Education Sessional Academic Award
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2017
- Details
- Faculty of Education Real World Teaching Award
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2015
- Details
- Faculty of Education Master's High Achievement Award
Supervision
Current supervisions
- Developing a reading and writing programme to assist Secondary EAL/D students in mainstream classes
Professional Doctorate, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Margaret Kettle, Professor Annette Woods - Teacher Understandings and Enactment of teaching L2 Pragmatics in Australian adult English as a second language (ESL) classrooms
Professional Doctorate, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Lynette May