Jane Torr
Biographic Data
| ID | 761280 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jane Torr |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jane |
| FAMILY NAME | Torr |
| SIGNATURE | TORR J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Macquarie University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7225-9914 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Educators’ infant-addressed language and gestures during shared reading in Australian and Chinese early childhood settings
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…
Evaluating a children's television show as a vehicle for learning about historical artefacts
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 introd…
Images as a Resource for Supporting Vocabulary Learning
In 2011, the Thai government introduced a national project, One Tablet per Child (OTPC), with the aim of supporting students' learning in the digital world. The project commenced with Grade 1 in 2012 and Grade 2 in 2013. The applications embedded in the OTPC tablet given to each child feature multimedia teaching applications (apps) on various subjects, including English as a foreign language (EFL). Using the Grade 1 and 2 English apps as a case s…
A Study of Reasoning Talk Between Australian Chinese Mothers and Their Preschool Children
The everyday conversations that occur between mothers and children, particularly those involving reasoning, are a major vehicle for the transmission of information and values to young children. This study explored the manner in which five Australian Chinese mothers engaged in reasoning talk with their preschool-aged children. A total of 83 instances of spontaneous reasoning talk were identified and analysed according to the manner in which the mo…
Reading aloud as performance and its representation on television programmes for children
The social practice of reading aloud picture books to children, or shared reading, has been represented on many televisions programmes broadcast across English-speaking countries. This article views shared reading as a performance, and explores its transformation on two television shows for children and the potential of such shows to promote reading engagement and literacy development. Taking a critical multimodal perspective, we analyse shared r…
What it is all about
Play gives young children opportunities to develop language and relationships. Friendships and the topics children choose for play can influence the nature of that play, but little is known about how friendship and topic choice impinge on topic maintenance. Topic maintenance is an important conversational skill, without which children can struggle to build relationships and access the type of extended talk which facilitates their language and con…
Australian Chinese parents’ language attitudes and practices relating to their children’s bilingual development prior to school
This article reports on a deep investigation of five Australian Chinese families regarding their preschool-aged children’s bilingual experiences and development. Each family was visited 3 to 5 times by the first author. The mothers were interviewed about their attitudes toward their child’s bilingualism and their practices to promote it. A detailed observation lasting 4 to 5 hours was undertaken of each family to record the interaction between pa…
The language of friendship
This article presents findings of a pilot project for a study investigating the language of preschool-aged peers, with particular attention to differences in genre that were evident in the dyadic play of children who self-identified as being ‘very best friends’ as opposed to ‘just a little bit’ friends. Participants were three 5-year-old boys in a preparatory class in regional Queensland, Australia. Friendship nominations were derived from a frie…
Mothers’ Beliefs About Literacy Development
Research has shown a relationship between mothers’ beliefs about literacy, their educational and socioeconomic backgrounds, and their children’s emergent literacy awareness. Many Australian Indigenous children experience educational disadvantage, as do children whose parents are manual workers. One recommendation that is frequently made is for parents to be encouraged to participate in their children’s literacy development. Yet little is known ab…
He's got a mind of his own”
Learning ‘special words’
It is widely recognized that there is a relationship between vocabulary development and children's reading ability. This article will focus on the strategies employed by 24 adults (12 mothers and 12 qualified preschool teachers) when introducing new and unusual vocabulary to four-year-old children during shared reading. The mothers differed in terms of educational achievement; half the mothers had left school by the age of 16, and half the mother…
The development of modality in the pre-school years
Modality is a particularly interesting area developmentally, as it is concerned with the child's evaluation of the possibilities and obligations involved in everyday interpersonal encounters. This paper will present the findings of a longitudinal case study of one child's development of modality over a 21 month period, beginning at 2;6 (two years and six months) and extending until 4;3 years. The study analyses the child's use of epistemic and de…
Australian Chinese parents’ language attitudes and practices relating to their children’s bilingual development prior to school
This article reports on a deep investigation of five Australian Chinese families regarding their preschool-aged children’s bilingual experiences and development. Each family was visited 3 to 5 times by the first author. The mothers were interviewed about their attitudes toward their child’s bilingualism and their practices to promote it. A detailed observation lasting 4 to 5 hours was undertaken of each family to record the interaction between pa…
Images as a Resource for Supporting Vocabulary Learning
In 2011, the Thai government introduced a national project, One Tablet per Child (OTPC), with the aim of supporting students' learning in the digital world. The project commenced with Grade 1 in 2012 and Grade 2 in 2013. The applications embedded in the OTPC tablet given to each child feature multimedia teaching applications (apps) on various subjects, including English as a foreign language (EFL). Using the Grade 1 and 2 English apps as a case s…
Reading aloud as performance and its representation on television programmes for children
The social practice of reading aloud picture books to children, or shared reading, has been represented on many televisions programmes broadcast across English-speaking countries. This article views shared reading as a performance, and explores its transformation on two television shows for children and the potential of such shows to promote reading engagement and literacy development. Taking a critical multimodal perspective, we analyse shared r…
He's got a mind of his own”
The development of modality in the pre-school years
Modality is a particularly interesting area developmentally, as it is concerned with the child's evaluation of the possibilities and obligations involved in everyday interpersonal encounters. This paper will present the findings of a longitudinal case study of one child's development of modality over a 21 month period, beginning at 2;6 (two years and six months) and extending until 4;3 years. The study analyses the child's use of epistemic and de…
Learning ‘special words’
It is widely recognized that there is a relationship between vocabulary development and children's reading ability. This article will focus on the strategies employed by 24 adults (12 mothers and 12 qualified preschool teachers) when introducing new and unusual vocabulary to four-year-old children during shared reading. The mothers differed in terms of educational achievement; half the mothers had left school by the age of 16, and half the mother…
He's got a mind of his own”
Mothers’ Beliefs About Literacy Development
Research has shown a relationship between mothers’ beliefs about literacy, their educational and socioeconomic backgrounds, and their children’s emergent literacy awareness. Many Australian Indigenous children experience educational disadvantage, as do children whose parents are manual workers. One recommendation that is frequently made is for parents to be encouraged to participate in their children’s literacy development. Yet little is known ab…
The language of friendship
This article presents findings of a pilot project for a study investigating the language of preschool-aged peers, with particular attention to differences in genre that were evident in the dyadic play of children who self-identified as being ‘very best friends’ as opposed to ‘just a little bit’ friends. Participants were three 5-year-old boys in a preparatory class in regional Queensland, Australia. Friendship nominations were derived from a frie…
Australian Chinese parents’ language attitudes and practices relating to their children’s bilingual development prior to school
This article reports on a deep investigation of five Australian Chinese families regarding their preschool-aged children’s bilingual experiences and development. Each family was visited 3 to 5 times by the first author. The mothers were interviewed about their attitudes toward their child’s bilingualism and their practices to promote it. A detailed observation lasting 4 to 5 hours was undertaken of each family to record the interaction between pa…
What it is all about
Play gives young children opportunities to develop language and relationships. Friendships and the topics children choose for play can influence the nature of that play, but little is known about how friendship and topic choice impinge on topic maintenance. Topic maintenance is an important conversational skill, without which children can struggle to build relationships and access the type of extended talk which facilitates their language and con…
A Study of Reasoning Talk Between Australian Chinese Mothers and Their Preschool Children
The everyday conversations that occur between mothers and children, particularly those involving reasoning, are a major vehicle for the transmission of information and values to young children. This study explored the manner in which five Australian Chinese mothers engaged in reasoning talk with their preschool-aged children. A total of 83 instances of spontaneous reasoning talk were identified and analysed according to the manner in which the mo…
Reading aloud as performance and its representation on television programmes for children
The social practice of reading aloud picture books to children, or shared reading, has been represented on many televisions programmes broadcast across English-speaking countries. This article views shared reading as a performance, and explores its transformation on two television shows for children and the potential of such shows to promote reading engagement and literacy development. Taking a critical multimodal perspective, we analyse shared r…
Images as a Resource for Supporting Vocabulary Learning
In 2011, the Thai government introduced a national project, One Tablet per Child (OTPC), with the aim of supporting students' learning in the digital world. The project commenced with Grade 1 in 2012 and Grade 2 in 2013. The applications embedded in the OTPC tablet given to each child feature multimedia teaching applications (apps) on various subjects, including English as a foreign language (EFL). Using the Grade 1 and 2 English apps as a case s…
Evaluating a children's television show as a vehicle for learning about historical artefacts
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 introd…
Educators’ infant-addressed language and gestures during shared reading in Australian and Chinese early childhood settings
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…
Psychology (11 works) · Developmental psychology (7 works) · Linguistics (7 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Mathematics education (5 works) · Social Psychology (5 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (4 works) · Child Development and Digital Technology (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Pedagogy (4 works)