Diane McGuinness

Diane McGuinness

Diane McGuinness (born 1933) is a cognitive psychologist who has written extensively on sex differences, education, learning disabilities, and early reading instruction.[1] She currently holds the title of Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of South Florida.

She received undergraduate and graduate degrees in psychology at the University of London: a Bachelor of Science at Birkbeck College (with first class honours), and a PhD at University College London. Over her academic career, she has published over 100 papers, chapters, and books on a number of subjects in the field of psychology.

McGuinness is an outspoken critic of whole language instruction but also of phonics as traditionally taught in the United States. She favors an approach to early reading instruction known as synthetic phonics or linguistic phonics, in which the starting point for instruction is the 40-odd phonemes of English.[2] In synthetic phonics instruction, each sound is introduced initially with a single "basic code" spelling, e.g. the /ee/ sound is connected to the 'ee' spelling. Students are taught to read by blending all of the sounds in the word. Spelling alternatives for sounds (e.g. for /ee/ the spellings 'y' as in funny, 'ea' as in eat, 'e' as in reflex, 'ie' as in cookie, etc.) are taught later. McGuinness has also introduced the term "code overlap" to describe a spelling (or grapheme) that can stand for more than one sound (phoneme), e.g. the spelling 'ow' can stand for the /ou/ sound as in the word now, or for the /oe/ sound as in the word snow.

McGuinness has stirred up controversy for her views on dyslexia and teaching letter names. She argues that dyslexia is not a biological condition but a socially-created problem that results from a complex spelling code and ineffective teaching methods. She has argued against teaching the letter names in the early phases of instruction on the grounds that letter names can confuse students. What is important, McGuinness argues, is that students be taught the relationships between sounds and letters.

Written Works

  • When Children Don't Learn, Basic Books (New York City), 1985.
  • (Editor) Dominance, Aggression, and War, Paragon House Publishers (New York City), 1987.
  • Evolution: The Transdisciplinary Paradigm, ICUS Books, 1987.
  • Why Our Children Can't Read, and What We Can Do about It, Free Press (New York City), 1997.
  • My First Phonics Book, Dorling Kindersley (New York City), 1999.
  • Growing a Reader from Birth: Your Child's Path from Language to Literacy, W.W. Norton and Co. (New York, NY), 2004.
  • Early Reading Instruction: What Science Really Tells Us about How to Teach Reading, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2004.
  • Language Development and Learning to Read: The Scientific Study of How Language Development Affects Reading Skill, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2005.

References

  1. ^ MIT Press
  2. ^ New York Times, October 12, 1997

External links

Scholarly reviews of McGuinness' recent books:


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Diane Dodds — MEP Member of the European Parliament for Northern Ireland Incumbent Assumed office 4 June 2009 Preceded by Jim Allister …   Wikipedia

  • Martin McGuinness — MP MLA …   Wikipedia

  • Reading education — is the process by which individuals are taught to derive meaning from text.Government funded scientific research on reading and reading instruction began in the U.S. in the 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s, researchers began publishing findings… …   Wikipedia

  • Reading education in the United States — For other uses, see Reading (disambiguation). Part of a series on Reading …   Wikipedia

  • Sight word — A sight word is any word that is known by a reader automatically. Sight words are pronounced without decoding the word s spelling. A common first sight word is a child s given name. Beginning readers are at an advantage when they learn to read… …   Wikipedia

  • Whole language — describes a literacy instructional philosophy which emphasizes that children should focus on meaning and moderates skill instruction. It can be contrasted with phonics based methods of teaching reading and writing which emphasize instruction for… …   Wikipedia

  • English language — English Pronunciation /ˈ …   Wikipedia

  • Marie Clay — Born 3 January 1926(1926 01 03) Wellington, New Zealand Died 21 December 2007(2007 12 21) (aged 81) Auckland, New Zealand Nationality …   Wikipedia

  • performing arts — arts or skills that require public performance, as acting, singing, or dancing. [1945 50] * * * ▪ 2009 Introduction Music Classical.       The last vestiges of the Cold War seemed to thaw for a moment on Feb. 26, 2008, when the unfamiliar strains …   Universalium

  • Britische Schriftsteller — Dies ist eine Liste englischsprachiger Schriftsteller. Für eine Unterteilung nach Herkunftsland siehe auch: Liste amerikanischer Schriftsteller Liste britischer Schriftsteller Liste kanadischer Schriftsteller Liste irischer Schriftsteller Liste… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”