Shared reading has been encouraged in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings in many countries. While previous research has examined educators' language use with infants during shared reading in Western contexts, little is known about whether and how shared reading is enacted in different cultures, nor how educators' language use interacts with non-verbal communication modes during shared reading. Adopting a cross-cultural, multimodal perspective, this study explored how educators in Australia and China use language and gestures during shared reading with infants. Using a case study approach, eight educators (four per country) were video recorded during naturally occurring shared reading. Their infant-addressed language and gestures were coded and examined in relation to contextual differences. The findings revealed clear differences: Australian educators afforded infants greater autonomy in seating and book choice and used more mental processes, statements, and gestures, whereas Chinese educators structured participation more tightly and relied more on material processes and commands. The study contributes to cross-cultural awareness of the ways in which picture books are shared with infants in ECEC settings in the two countries.

Previous studies suggest that educator–infant interactions during mealtime have significant potential to promote early language learning. As most of this research has focused on Western contexts, little is known about whether and how educators’ interactions with infants during mealtime in early childhood education and care (ECEC) settings vary across cultures. To address this knowledge gap, using a multi-case study approach, we compared the natural mealtime interactions of 12 educators with infants in ECEC settings in Australia and China, with six educators participating in each country. Drawing on systemic functional linguistic (SFL) theory and multimodal discourse analysis (MDA), this study examined (1) the situational context of the mealtime practices (each meal’s duration, educators’ movement and whether they modelled eating behaviours, and infants’ eating behaviours); (2) educators’ infant-addressed language and gesture use; and (3) infants’ use of vocalisation and gesture. The analysis revealed several differences: (1) the Australian educators sat with the infants, while the Chinese educators moved around the tables and served the infants; (2) the Australian educators’ talk included a higher percentage of mental processes, statements, and gestures, while the Chinese educators used more material processes and commands in their speech and fewer gestures; and (3) the Australian infants vocalised more and used more gestures. Adopting a systemic functional and multimodal discourse analysis (SF MDA) approach enabled us to relate such differences to both the situational and broader cultural context of educator–infant interactions. This study thus contributes to a richer, more nuanced understanding of the factors that shape educator–infant interactions and the potential of mealtime in ECEC settings to provide infants with opportunities for language learning across cultures.

This study compared the story-focused language of two groups of 40 Chinese preschool children who separately read and discussed a wordless and a text-based version of one Aesop's fable with their educators. Drawing on systemic functional linguistic theory, the children's language was analyzed according to their semantic function: label, describe, infer, compare, generalize and explain. The results showed that 3-4-year-olds generated fewer story-focused clauses than 4-5-year-olds in both book reading genres, yet the gap was much narrower in wordless booking reading where the younger children were more engaged in story-focused discussion. The younger children used more 'infer' and 'explain' clauses during wordless book reading, whereas the older children used more 'describe' clauses. The situation was reversed for the children reading the text-based book. These findings have implications for educators to optimize the learning opportunities afforded to young children during shared reading, considering the influence of book types on different age groups.

Reading picture books with infants and toddlers facilitates their early language development, with far-reaching benefits for their later reading abilities and academic achievement. While the importance of reading books with children aged from 3 to 5 years is widely recognised, the benefits of reading with much younger children from 0 to 3 years, who are still engaged in learning their first language, are less well understood. This book will explore the seemingly simple practice of reading picture books with infants and toddlers aged 0–3 years, from a range of perspectives. Not only do book-focused adult–child interactions support language and early literacy development in multiple ways, such interactions can also, at the same time, foster intellectual, social, emotional, and spiritual growth. By weaving together in an accessible manner the insights from several different discipline areas, this book will explain how and why reading with infants and toddlers has such power to enrich their lives. Providing an evidence-based, theoretically informed account, Reading Picture Books with Infants and Toddlers supports educators, parents, and caregivers with the knowledge, skills, and motivation to provide frequent, enjoyable, and language-rich reading experiences with infants and toddlers.

Television, like other media, can work as a platform for promoting learning. This article illustrates the value of multimodal discourse analysis for evaluating the potential of a children's television show as a vehicle for fostering knowledge and skills in a specific subject area. Drawing on social semiotic principles and systemic functional genre theory, we examine the use of language and other modes in Teacup Travels - a show designed to introduce young viewers to historical artefacts. The analysis demonstrates that both story structure and particular semiotic resources contribute to how these objects are represented, and thus shape the TV programme's potential to engage children in learning about the past. Our findings suggest that multimodal storytelling strategies used in Teacup Travels encourage some aspects of children's historical consciousness and thinking, while backgrounding others.

M. A. K. Halliday's work on child language development spans over 40 years and continues to inform and inspire researchers and educators around the world. In 1975, Halliday published his groundbreaking case study of his son Nigel's early language development. Having already developed his systemic functional linguistic (SFL) theory of language structure and function, he looked for the origins of the adult linguistic system in the earliest utterances of his infant son. The chapter begins with an overview of the three abstract functions that shape the organization of the adult language. The next section traces the origins of these functions back to the first acts of meaning produced by infants in their first year. The chapter then follows the child's gradual reinterpretation of the functions of language over the ensuing two to three years. At this point, another feature of SFL theory that has implications for early childhood pedagogy is introduced; that is, the ways in which certain features of the material situation—the nature of the activity and the relationship between the participants—shapes, and is shaped by, the language choices of the speaker. The chapter concludes by suggesting some implications of Halliday's model of language and its development for early childhood pedagogy and practice. Keywords: language development; early learning; systemic functional linguistics; infants and toddlers; childcare.

This chapter presents a critical multimodal comparison of pedagogic discourse in two primary-school EFL (English as an foreign language) classrooms in Thailand that incorporate tablet-based instructional materials. Specifically, combining a systemic functional approach to multimodal discourse analysis with Bernstein's (1990) theory of pedagogic discourse, the study examined how the two teachers used speech and gesture to (1) teach children EFL (the instructional register) and (2) manage classroom interactions (the regulative register). The comparison reveals that both multimodal interaction in the classroom and the language teaching approach adopted by the teacher must be considered in understanding and developing effective methods for the integration of new technologies in EFL classrooms.

Early childhood educators are encouraged to read with infants, yet little is known about the educator-infant book-focused interactions that occur in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) centres. This study provides a systematic linguistic analysis of the naturally occurring interactions between one focal child Charlie (aged 21 months and 13 days) and two of his educators, as they each engaged in shared reading with Charlie and one or more of his peers during a typical day in his infant room. While both educators engaged in shared reading for pedagogical purposes, the meanings realised in their talk differed in subtle ways, providing Charlie and his peers with tacit and sometimes contradictory messages about how to make meaning from words and pictures. One educator's proportionally greater use of mental processes and polar questions construed shared reading primarily as an interpretive activity, while the other educator's proportionally greater use of WH questions and directives construed shared reading primarily as an instructional activity. Differences were also observed in Charlie's verbal participation during the two shared readings. The findings reveal how educators, through their own talk, create particular contexts in which infants may or may not participate during shared reading experiences.

Research shows an association between mother-infant shared reading and children’s language and literacy development. Educators in early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres frequently interact with groups of similar-aged infants, yet infant-educator shared reading has received little attention. This naturalistic observational study videorecorded 20 focus infants (children aged under 2 years) from 20 separate ECEC centres as they went about their normal everyday activities. Each focus infant was videorecorded for approximately 3 h each (a total of 60 h of data), as part of a larger project investigating the language environment in ECEC infant rooms. The present study investigated whether the infants engaged in book-focused interactions with their educators, and if so, whether the infants participated verbally. Each infant’s book-focused interactions were identified and transcribed verbatim, and each infant’s room was assessed using the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale Revised Edition (ITERS-R) (Listening and Talking Subscale). Nine of the 20 infants did not participate in any shared reading. The extent to which the remaining 11 infants engaged in shared reading ranged from minimal to extensive. In 85% of ECEC rooms, the ITERS-R score for using books was lower than that for helping children understand language and helping children use language . The findings suggest that many educators may be unaware of the importance of reading with infants. Given the benefits of shared reading for infants’ current and future language and literacy development, it is vital that every infant has the opportunity to participate in frequent, sustained, language-rich interactions with their educators.

This study investigated the manner in which 56 infant educators used language to direct the behaviour of infants (defined as children aged birth to two years), on the basis that the ways in which educators frame their commands represent an important component of young children's learning experiences. Underpinned by systemic functional linguistic theory, the study analysed the frequency and type of command produced by educators with university, diploma and certificate qualifications. Suggestive and indirect commands convey a sense of negotiation, as if the addressees' subjective opinions and thoughts are considered, while nonsuggestive and direct commands foreground the speakers' power and authority. The findings demonstrate that commands feature frequently in educators' talk to infants, with nonsuggestive and direct commands being most commonly used. Individual differences were related to the qualifications of staff. University-qualified early childhood teachers used significantly fewer nonsuggestive and direct commands than did diploma and certificate-qualified educators, and they were more likely to provide infants with a reason for the command. These findings have implications for the way in which learning opportunities are created by the language that educators use, and for the overall quality of infant early childhood programmes.

Research Findings: This study examines the frequency of reasoning talk used by 56 educators during their naturally occurring play interactions with infants in their early childhood education and care (ECEC) centers. Using Hasan's semantic framework, reasons were coded as social (based on social rules) or logical (based on rules of nature). The communicative function of reasoning talk was coded as regulatory (when the reason served to regulate infants' behavior) or non-regulatory. On average, educators' reasoning talk comprising only 4.43% of their total talk, with social reasoning used slightly more frequently than logical reasoning. Educators used significantly more social reasoning when regulating infants' behavior, whereas logical reasoning occurred more frequently during non-regulatory interactions. Educators' qualification level explained individual differences. Bachelor-qualified educators used significantly more reasoning talk than lower-qualified educators, and this finding was explained by their more frequent use of both social and logical reasoning when regulating infants' behavior. Practice or Policy: The study identifies reasoning talk as an important element of language environment quality in ECEC infant rooms, and highlights the learning potential of language used for different communicative purposes. Findings demonstrate that well-qualified educators appear well versed to capitalize on the educative potential of this type of talk.