Naomi Wilks-Smith

Dr. Naomi Wilks-Smith

Associate Professor, Primary Literacy Education
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Details

Open to

  • Masters Research or PhD student supervision

About

Dr Naomi Wilks-Smith is an Associate Professor, language education specialist, teacher and researcher within the School of Education at RMIT University. Her work focuses on research-informed language teaching methodology including; Second language teaching methodology, Second language acquisition, Bilingual education, Oral language output, Interactive storytelling and Intentional Teaching Gestures for language learning. 

Naomi is an experienced educator who has had roles in a variety of educational settings within primary and secondary schools and tertiary institutions in Australia, New Zealand and Japan, including mainstream classrooms, language centres, bilingual schools, and as a specialist Japanese language and English as an additional language teacher. Naomi's vast experience contributes to her Higher Education teaching practice which centres around second language education. She is particularly interested in innovative approaches for second language learning and passionate about embracing learners' languages and linguistic and culturally inclusive practices. Naomi also leads inbound and outbound global experiences, as well as online global experiences, to enhance the global competencies of pre-service teachers.

Naomi's work involves the integrated scholarship of research and education practice and often includes industry partners in schools as well as cross-School, external and international collaborations. Naomi strives for educational impact through research translation and research value creation and has been awarded grants for her work.

Engagement:
Cross-School Engagement:
- School of Design – Research projects (eg. Community Banashi Project, Voice Story App Project), Joint publications, Presentations, Grant applications.
- School of Global, Urban and Social Studies (GUSS) – Research program team member, Joint HDR supervision, Joint grant applications.

Industry Engagement:
- School partnerships (across Melbourne, Australia and Kochi, Japan) - Research projects, Grants, Inbound and outbound global experiences.
- Melbourne-Kochi Bilateral Program including establishing sister-schools between Melbourne and Kochi.
- TEFL Praxis Association, Vice President in the Executive Council.
- TEFL Praxis Journal, Associate Editor on the Editorial Board of the TEFL Praxis Journal.

External and International Engagement:
Lead of RMIT-Kochi University (Japan) partnership. Collaborative research projects, Joint publications, Joint grant applications, Inbound and outbound global experiences, Online global experiences.

Awards:
- Michele Steele BEST of JALT Award, Best presentation in the East Shikoku JALT Chapter in 2021, awarded in 2022
- RMIT School of Education Excellence in Research Awards (June and September) 2021.
- CSIRO ON Prime Program, performance bonus, $2,750 for the Voice Story Project, 2018
- RMIT Teaching Excellence Award, 2012
- Department of Education LOTE Teaching excellence award – recipient of in-country study program, Urawa, Japan, 2000
- MCJLE (Melbourne Centre for Japanese Language Education) study scholarship awarded for Masters of Education, 1999

Academic positions

  • Associate Professor
  • RMIT University
  • Melbourne, Australia
  • 27 Oct 2025 – Present
  • Senior Lecturer
  • RMIT University
  • School of Education,
  • Melbourne, Australia
  • 1 Jan 2024 – 24 Oct 2025
  • Lecturer
  • RMIT University
  • School of Education
  • Melbourne, Australia
  • 2011 – 31 Dec 2023
  • Sessional Lecturer
  • RMIT University
  • School of Education
  • Melbourne, Australia
  • 2003 – 2011
  • Casual Lecturer
  • La Trobe University
  • Melbourne, Australia
  • 2001 – 2004
  • Bilingual classroom teacher
  • Huntingdale Primary Bilingual School
  • Australia
  • 2000 – 2002
  • Lecturer of Japanese
  • Swinburne University of Technology
  • Melbourne, Australia
  • 1998 – 1999
  • Bilingual Co-ordinator & teacher of Japanese
  • Gruyere Primary School
  • Australia
  • 1997 – 1999
  • Teacher of Japanese - LOTE program
  • Kerrimuir Primary School
  • Australia
  • 1995 – 1997
  • Teacher of Japanese - LOTE program
  • St Leonards College
  • Australia
  • 1994 – 1994
  • English as a second language teacher
  • NOVA Language Institute, Akihabara Campus
  • Tokyo, Japan
  • 1993 – 1993

Supervisor projects

  • Responding to Industry Needs and a Rapidly Evolving Industry: A Design Thinking Approach to Undergraduate Course Development in Communication Design
  • 8 Apr 2024
  • Australia-Based International Students' Development of Intercultural Competence
  • 3 Jul 2023
  • Investigating the impact of Intentional Teaching Gestures on student oral production and attitudes in the French-as-an-Additional-Language classroom
  • 27 Jul 2022
  • Designing an Immersive Virtual Reality Classroom to Assist Pre-service Teachers with Supporting Low-level Challenging Behaviours 
  • 29 Jan 2022
  • Japanese Learners' Memoirs: Reconfiguration of L2 Japanese learners identity and sense of self
  • 23 Sep 2020

Research interests

Second language teaching methodology, Second language acquisition, Bilingual education, Oral language output, Interactive storytelling, Intentional Teaching Gestures for language learning, Translanguaging, EAL/D
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