Dr. Hilary Smith

Biography

Hilary Smith has over 30 years of teaching and research experience in applied linguistics across New Zealand, Australia, the South Pacific, and Southeast Asia. She has lived in Tonga, Papua New Guinea, and Lao PDR, and has worked in Indonesia, Kiribati, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Nepal, Thailand, and Timor-Leste. Her academic work focuses on language-in-education, innovative methods for measuring attitudes, language policy, and the implementation of language revival initiatives, particularly for the Gamilaraay language in New South Wales. Hilary is also interested in organizational development and leadership within non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and has a significant background in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) for NGOs. She has been actively involved with New Zealand's Volunteers Service Abroad (VSA), serving as national Chair for nine years and holding membership status for six life members. Hilary has served as the past president of TESOLANZ (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages in New Zealand) and is currently the president of ALANZ (Applied Linguistics Aotearoa New Zealand). Her qualifications include a Diploma in Teaching English as a Second Language (DipTESL), a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics, and a PhD in Linguistics from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Research Interests