ABSTRACT
Clare Painter is an Honorary Associate in Linguistics at the University of Sydney. In this interview she reflects on how her research in language development has fed into educational linguistics. Previously she worked at the University of Technology, Sydney, and University of New South Wales, Australia. Her research has focused on the areas of children’s early language development, as well as the semiotics of picture books. Her PhD was a case study of her son’s use of language from two-and-a-half to five years, where she examined the child’s changing language and showed how new linguistic possibilities constitute developments in cognitive resources and prepare the child for later learning in school. Painter focused on the interactive nature of the process, and she has also contributed illustrative texts to illuminate Halliday’s claim that when learning their first language, children simultaneously learn through language and learn about language. Clare Painter has developed the principles of systemic-functional theory to give an account of visual meaning in the reading of picture book narratives together with Jim Martin and Len Unsworth.
