bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Rethinking the Practicum in the Professional Development School Partnership
Authors: Zeichner Kenneth
Published: March 2007

The reemergence of the professional development school movement in North America may mark the beginning of a paradigm shift in clinical teacher education. Conceptual and structural obstacles to student teacher learning in practicums that must be addressed if the professional development school is to achieve its goals are discussed. The conceptual barriers result from inadequate conceptions of reflection that neglect teachers' practical theories, values, the social conditions of schooling, and the social aspects of reflection. The structural barriers include the placement of student teachers in single classrooms rather than schools, the selection of placements, supervisory relations, and the lack of multicultural placements. Professional development schools offer an opportunity to overcome these obstacles by altering the power and role relationships in the practicum.
The Invisible Minority: Preparing Teachers to Meet the Needs of Gay and Lesbian Youth
Authors: Mathison Carla
Published: March 2007

Multicultural education is the educational strategy in which the student's cultural background is viewed as positive and essential in developing class-room instruction and a desirable school environment. It is designed to support and extend the concepts of culture, cultural pluralism, and equality into the formal school setting (Gollnick & Chinn, 1986, p. 3).
The World Economy
Authors: Pain Nigel , Ashworth Paul , Holland Dawn , Hubert Florence , Willem te Velde Dirk
Published: March 2007

Global economic activity has continued to gain momentum in recent months and a cyclical upturn is now clearly underway. The rate of growth of world GDP is projected to rise to just under 4¼ per cent this year, from an estimated outturn of 3.4 per cent last year. Growth is expected to accelerate in all the major regional markets for the first time since 1994. The improving economic prospects are already apparent in the trade statistics for the latter part of last year. World trade growth, measured in terms of merchandise trade volumes, is expected to rise by 9 per cent this year from 5½ per cent in 1999.
Domesday Economy: Analysis of the English Economy Early in the Second Millennium
Authors: McDonald John
Published: March 2007

The Domesday Survey of 1086 provides high quality and detailed information on the outputs, inputs and tax assessments of most English manors. These data can be used to reconstruct the eleventh century Domesday economy. This article describes the Survey, the contemporary institutional arrangements, and the main features of Domesday agricultural production. It shows how frontier methods can be used to assess the efficiency of production and the impact of the feudal and manorial systems on input productivities and production output. The frontier analysis suggests that the average efficiency level of Domesday estates relative to the best practice of the time was similar to, or more favourable than, that of production units in more modern primary industry. Also, input rigidities induced by feudalism and manorialism resulted in widely differing input productivities across estates, and a very significant reduction in overall output.
Monetary and Fiscal Policy in Europe: an Overview
Authors: Barrell Ray , Pain Nigel
Published: March 2007

There are new monetary and fiscal frameworks in place for the countries in the Euro Area. The European Central Bank has a remit to maintain price level stability in the medium term, and it has developed a two pillar strategy, with interest rates being set in relation to a reference value of M3 and general (inflationary) conditions. We discuss an ideal type representation of this framework and examine the potential effects of a fall in the euro. Fiscal policy in Europe is now based on guidelines from the Stability and Growth Pact and we discuss the role of commitment in this framework as well
Price Level Stability: Some Issues
Authors: Gaspar Vitor , Smets Frank
Published: March 2007

This article challenges the conventional wisdom that price level targeting necessarily increases the volatility of inflation and economic activity. It shows that the optimal policy under commitment for a society that cares only about the variability of output and inflation involves only a limited degree of base drift. The result crucially depends on the importance of forward-looking behaviour and on the credibility of the commitments. The case for price level targeting is strengthened when the possibility of a binding lower bound on nominal interest rates is considered. This may be increasingly relevant in a low inflation environment. This justifies renewed interest on price level targets in the context of thinking through how to prevent and respond to deflationary risks.
World Trade in Manufactures
Authors: Major R. L.
Published: March 2007

World exports of manufactures have risen rapidly in the last decade—indeed faster than world manufacturing production (chart 1). There were checks in 1951–53 and in 1958; even so the yearly rate of rise since 1950 has been 9 per cent in value, 7 1/2 per cent in volume. The pattern of this trade has been changing, particularly in the last five years: markets have grown faster in the industrial countries than in the less developed parts of the world (chart 2). Since 1954, in value terms, the exports of manufactures to the United States and to OEEC countries have been rising at an average rate of 17 per cent and 10 per cent a year respectively; to Latin America and the sterling area, only 3 1/2 per cent and 4 1/2 per cent.
Note On the Retail and Consumer Price Indices
Authors: Shepherd J. R.
Published: March 2007

The Ministry of Labour has recently introduced a new index of retail prices using a method rather different to that of earlier indices. This is the index that is usually used in wage and salary negotiations. This note gives a brief explanation of the change.
The Common Market: Production and Trade
Authors: Major R. L.
Published: March 2007

This article examines trade and production figures for the Common Market countries before and after 1958. The Common Market can be said to have come into effect on 1 January 1959, when the first reductions were made in the internal tariff. But there was not in fact a great deal of discrimination against outsiders before the second set of reductions, on 1 July 1960. So far, these tariff changes do not seem to have had any great effect; other factors must have overborne them.
Leading Indicators for the British Economy
Authors: Drakatos C.
Published: March 2007

One method of short-term economic forecasting is the use of indicators which normally change direction in advance of business activity as a whole. This method has been extensively developed over many years, with some success, by the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States. In the present article we have explored the possibility of finding such a set of leading indicators for the British economy, with special reference to post-war movements.
Retail and Consumer Prices, 1955-1963
Authors: Godley W. A. H. , Rowe D. A.
Published: March 2007

This paper gives an account of a method of forecasting the Ministry of Labour's retail prices index, and of deriving from it a forecast of the consumer price index. (This is the index used in the National Income statistics to deflate the value of consumers' expenditure to volume terms.) Good forecasting obviously has to be based on a correct analysis of the factors which determine price changes; the article throws light on the way in which cost changes are taken into account when prices are changed. It seems that retail prices (apart from seasonal food prices) do not respond directly to short-term fluctuations in demand and output. Businessmen do not raise prices because demand suddenly rises; nor on the other hand do they lower them when output moves up sharply and unit costs fall. The analysis, therefore, provides further support for the ‘normal cost’ theory of pricing—that businessmen set prices by calculating their costs when working at some normal capacity, and add a conventional margin.
An Analysis of Tax Changes
Authors: Hopkin W. A. B. , Treasury H. M. , Godley W. A. H. , Rowe D. A.
Published: March 2007

In this country, when Governments change tax-rates, their main purpose is usually to alter the general level of demand. They clearly need to know, as best they can, how much effect on demand various types of tax change will have. Further, outside the Government, any short-term forecast of the economy also needs to make some estimate of the consequences of tax changes.
Pricing Behaviour in Manufacturing Industry
Authors: Godley W. A. H. , Gillion C.
Published: March 2007

This note analyses the price changes of some 470 manufactured products in five recent years. They were taken as a sample from the price quotations on which the Board of Trade bases its wholesale price index for manufactured products. Since the conclusions for the engineering industry are rather different from those of other industries, the two groups— engineering and non-engineering—are discussed separately. Food, drink and tobacco prices are excluded throughout.
The Chemicals Industry: Problems of Projection
Authors: Crum R.E.
Published: March 2007

Three projections have been published in the last two years which give figures for the possible pattern of industrial production which might accompany certain growth-rates of total national output between 1964 and 1970, or 1964 and 1975. One of the problems in calculations of this kind is to find a sensible way of projecting the output of industries like the chemicals industry, which mainly supply other industries rather than the final consumer, and whose products have been gaining at the expense of traditional materials : the input of chemicals, per unit of output of the user industries, has been tending to rise.
The CBI ‘Industrial Trends Survey’ as a Measure of Current Manufacturing Output
Authors: Gregory M.
Published: March 2007

‘The ideal situation would be one in which all the data were bang up to date, completely reliable and mutually consistent. We should then be able to say with confidence what had been happening and where we were. Unfortunately this is hardly ever possible. The first thing we have to forecast is the past.’
The Clay Brick Industry and the Tunnel Kiln
Authors: Davies S.W.
Published: March 2007

An article in the National Institute Economic Review in May 1969 described the first results of an inquiry on which the National Institute has been engaged since 1967, in collaboration with research institutes in a number of other countries, into the diffusion of new technology in industry. Ten techniques were originally studied, of which eight were subsequently selected for investigation in greater depth. These included the use of the shuttleless loom in weaving (discussed in a Review article in August last year) and of the tunnel kiln in brickmaking, with which the present article is concerned.
Forecasting Exports to the Six: An Analytical Approach
Authors: Garganas N. C.
Published: March 2007

This article is one of a series describing attempts made at the National Institute to develop formal methods of preparing short-run forecasts of United Kingdom exports. The first article was concerned with British exports of manufactures to industrial countries and the second with exports to primary producers.
III. Energy
Authors: Ray G.F.
Published: March 2007

When we last made a medium-term energy forecast, in 1967, we said that it was ‘highly speculative to express any view about the division of …. energy demand between primary fuels and in particular about the demand for coal’ because of two factors: the emergence of natural gas and the degree of protection given to coal. Meanwhile natural gas has been adopted on a substantial scale—it already accounted (in terms of coal equivalent) for about 5 per cent of the supply of primary energy in 1970—and significant deposits of petroleum have been discovered in the North Sea. The flow of oil from this source seems sure to have begun by 1975, and by 1980 a large part of crude oil requirements will be covered by ‘domestic’ supplies, though the quantity available remains uncertain. Social considerations apart, this could throw a different light also on the question of protecting coal. Moreover the EEC might well be operating a common energy policy by the end of the decade and in the meanwhile there are in our view a number of other aspects of present United Kingdom energy policy which in any case call for re-examination. Thus our present forecasts are no less speculative than the earlier ones, though for rather different reasons.
The Tax-Credit Proposals
Authors: Fiegehen G. C. , Lansley P. S.
Published: March 2007

In October 1972 the Government published a discussion document, the Green Paper Proposals for a Tax-Credit System, which sought ‘a way to simplify and reform the whole system of personal tax collection and, at the same time, to improve the system of income support for poor people’. In this article we discuss some of the implications of the proposals for the distribution of income support, the effects on personal incomes, both in cash and kind, the cost of the proposals and how this might be met, and some aspects of the resulting tax and social security system.
The Effect of Exchange Rates on Export Market Shares
Authors: Page S.A.B.
Published: March 2007

The changes in the exchange rates of the major exporters of manufactures between 1967 and 1971 were followed by substantial changes in their export performance measured against trends before the realignment, indicating that the devaluations and revaluations were effective, contrary to some preliminary assessments. Changes in relative prices are a good explanation of the previous trends, as well as the basic reason for expecting effects from exchange rate changes. The results under fixed rates cannot therefore be applied under floating rates as these reduce, if they do not eliminate, relative price changes converted to a common currency.
Output, Employment and Labour Productivity in Europe Since 1955
Authors: Jones D.T.
Published: March 2007

This article sets the broad facts of the industrial performance of the UK in the post-war period within a European context. Using purchasing power parity rates the relative levels of labour productivity between countries are compared, for GDP, manufacturing and six sub-sectors of manufacturing. By 1973 the UK had the lowest level amongst the countries studied. Growth rates of output, employment and labour productivity are estimated for four periods since 1955 and the relatively slow growth rates in the UK are analysed.
European Energy Prospects
Authors: Ray G.F.
Published: March 2007

The 1975 reduction of energy consumption was chiefly due to the recession; plans and forecasts for 1975-80 indicate a return towards pre-1973 energy usage and the upward trend becomes moderated only in 1980-85. Europe's relative dependence on imported oil is likely to decline, due to increased production of North Sea oil and of nuclear electricity, as well as to the better utilization of other indigenous sources, though there are some uncertainties about these. Beyond 1985, however, new energy sources are likely to be needed; in order to secure them in time, R & D effort ought to be strengthened now, and on a cooperative international basis.
Comparative Levels of Labour Productivity in Dutch and British Manufacturing
Authors: van Ark Bart
Published: March 2007

‘And coming home, did go on board Sir W. Petty's Experiment—which is a brave roomy vessel—and I hope may do well. So went on shore to a Dutch house to drink some Rum, and there light upon some Dutchmen, with whom we had a good discourse touching Stoveing and making of cables. But to see how despicably they speak of us for our using so many hands more to do anything then they do, they closing a cable with 20 that we use 60 men upon’ (Samuel Pepys' diary for 13 February 1665)

This article compares the output per person-hour in 16 branches constituting the total manufacturing sector of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The comparatively poor productivity performance of British industry, as documented in previous studies comparing Britain with Germany and the USA, is confirmed in this new comparison with a much smaller economy in the 1980s. The article examines differences in the industrial composition in the manufacturing sectors of the two countries. Part of the productivity gap is accounted for by the stronger concentration of Dutch manufacturing in capital-intensive industries and in the production of semimanufactured goods. However, a bigger slice of the gap must be attributed to factors such as differences in the pace of introducing new technologies in some of the branches, the quality of the labour force and the utilisation of the capital stock. The article also explores the relation between the average size of manufacturing units and the degree of vertical integration.
Improvements in Workforce Qualifications: Britain and France 1979–88
Authors: Steedman Hilary
Published: March 2007

It is now widely recognised in advanced industrialised countries that ability to exploit technological innovation competitively is dependent upon the levels of skill available in the working population. In the early 1960s, both France and Britain took steps to remedy the problem of levels of craft and technician-level skills which were inferior to those of Germany. In the intervening twenty years, these intermediate skill levels have become increasingly important, in particular for manufacturing efficiency as micro-electronic control equipment and the efficient logistical organisation of production demand a new and wider range of technical services to maximise machinery utilisation and to combine it with the satisfaction of more sophisticated consumer requirements.
Has the EMS changed wage and price behaviour in Europe?
Authors: Barrell Ray
Published: March 2007

Macroeconomic performance in Europe was generally agreed to have been poor in the 1970s, with high inflation and low growth. The 1980s saw a significant improvement, with inflation being reduced to under 5 per cent by the end of the decade, and growth reaching some sort of peak in 1989. There were many factors contributing to this improved performance, and the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) of the European Monetary System (EMS) has been given much of the credit. The ERM was supposed to have given the monetary authorities in France and Italy increased anti-inflationary credibility. Their decision to link their exchange rates to the D-Mark involved a commitment to follow German monetary policy and hence involved taking on German anti-inflationary credibility.
The Rise of China as an Economic Power
Authors: Goodhart C. , Xu C.
Published: March 2007

In the twenty years since the Cultural Revolution, China has maintained fast real growth. This occurred despite China having similar problems to other transitional economies, e.g. loss-making State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), eroding fiscal revenues and inflation, (Section 3).

Although China initially adopted the Soviet central planning model, after the 1950s break Chinese planning changed towards a regionally-based system with local planning (Section 2). In contrast to the centrally-based, functionally-specialised (U-form or unitary structure) Soviet model, the Chinese economy is organised on a multi-layer-multi-regional (M-form) basis. This encour aged development of small size township and village enterprises (TVEs), the main engine of Chinese growth.

Power and control remained with the Party and the State, but was diffused much more widely, regionally and locally. This allowed initiatives at lower (political) levels to establish institutions, both in agriculture (the ‘household responsibility system’) and industry (TVEs), without state protection. Even among regionally controlled SOEs, ‘tournament rivalry’ between regions, etc., and between SOEs and TVEs provided competition.
Structural Change in European Labour Markets
Authors: Morgan Julian
Published: March 2007

In recent years considerable attention has been paid to the condition of labour markets in Europe. The recession of the early 1990s saw unemployment reach a post war high in a number of European countries. As Chart 1 shows unemployment has shown a secular upward trend in Germany, Italy and most notably, Spain. Real wage growth was also slower in the 1980s and 1990s than it had been in the 1970s (Chart 2).
The UK Economy
Authors: Young Garry
Published: March 2007

The development of the UK economy over the past four years has been marked by a very favourable and unexpected combination of steady growth and low inflation with prices growing on average at about the same rate as real income. In addition, claimant unemployment has fallen by over 800,000 since its peak at the beginning of 1993 and the current account deficit of the balance of payments has remained small and, somewhat erratically, declined.
Section II. Prospects for North America and Japan
Authors: Pain Nigel
Published: March 2007

Economic activity accelerated sharply in the United States at the beginning of this year. GDP rose by 1¼ per cent in the first quarter, to a level 3.8 per cent higher than a year earlier. This was the fastest quarterly growth for two years. The acceleration in growth was unexpected given that the present cyclical expansion has now lasted for over seven years. Private sector demand is still continuing to be supported by the sustained appreciation in equity prices over the past three years, and the appreciation of the dollar has helped to hold down the inflationary pressures that are being built up as the labour market begins to tighten. The unemployment rate fell to 4.3 per cent in April, the lowest rate since 1970.
Financial market contagion and the effects of the crises in East Asia, Russia and Latin America
Authors: Barrell Ray , Dury Karen , Holland Dawn , Pain Nigel , te Velde Dirk
Published: March 2007

The Asian crisis has had a marked effect on the world economy over the past fifteen months. Private sector demand has collapsed in the affected economies and reinforced the effects arising from the deflationary forces in the Japanese economy at present. Up until this summer it did not appear likely that the world economy as a whole would slide into a full scale recession, although it was clear that growth had begun to slow in the industrialised economies. There were also important downside risks in our forecasts at that time; in particular the danger that a policy of monetisation in Japan would further weaken the yen and set in motion renewed disruption by enforcing a devaluation of the Chinese yuan against the dollar. It was also clear that profit margins were coming under pressure in the US economy, raising the possibility that future dividends would be somewhat weaker than implied by the exceptionally rapid growth in real equity prices since 1994. Neither a Chinese devaluation nor an equity price collapse were however part of our central forecasts.
The US stock market and the global economic crisis
Authors: Wadhwani Sushil B.
Published: March 2007

The question whether the US equity market is overvalued is important from a policy perspective because a significant derating could interact adversely with the realisation of risks of recession. A simple dividend based model suggests that the market is two or three times overvalued. Allowing for stock buybacks, takeovers for cash and temporary unsustainable earnings growth leave the market overvalued by 20–30 per cent. The ‘New Economy’ view that recessions are things of the past and that technical change justifies permanently higher earnings growth is implausible. An influential argument that the traditional premium earned by equities over bonds is too high is itself theoretically special. Similarly the recent relationship between US inflation and the risk premium has not held at other times and places, while the fact that most wealth is held by middle-aged people with limited time horizons supports a larger premium. Our best guess is that the current premium is 1.7 per cent p.a. which is near the lower end of the historical range although equity investors do not appear to be prepared for lower returns in the face of the possibility of global recession in the next 12–18 months. The risk that a US market adjustment might aggravate such a recession in the US itself is a basis for reconsidering central banks' disregard of asset prices in setting monetary policy.
The UK economy
Authors: Kneller Richard , Young Garry
Published: March 2007

It is now just over two years since the new framework for monetary policy was announced and operational responsibility for the setting of interest rates was devolved to the independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the Bank of England. A key component of the new arrangements is their accountability. One of the ways in which this is meant to be achieved is by the ‘open letter’ system, whereby the Governor is to write to the Chancellor whenever inflation is one percentage point higher or lower than the target. It is remarkable that no open letters have yet had to be written.
Section I. Recent developments and summary of the forecast
Authors: Young Garry
Published: March 2007

The current state of the UK economy is arguably as good as it has been for thirty years. Unemployment and inflation are each at their lowest levels for several years. A ‘misery’ index, derived simply by adding the unemployment and inflation rates is at its lowest point since the late 1960s.
Increasing Earnings Inequality and Unemployment in Developed Countries: Markets, Institutions, and the “Unified Theory”
Authors: HOWELL DAVID R.
Published: March 2007

It is widely accepted that global forces of technology and trade have caused a profound shift in labor demand toward the most highly skilled, generating sharply rising earnings inequality in flexible labor markets (United States) and persistently high unemployment in rigid labor markets (Europe). This article critically assesses the evidence for this “Unified Theory.” It finds little compelling empirical support for either the skill-biased demand-shift explanation for high U.S. earnings inequality or the rigid labor markets explanation for high unemployment in Europe. This assessment challenges the policy orthodoxy of the 1990s that developed economies feature a strict inequality-unemployment trade-off and that policy options are therefore limited to skills enhancement in the United States and labor market deregulation in Europe. It is suggested that the theoretical dominance of the textbook supply/demand model has contributed to the neglect of labor market institutions for U.S. wage outcomes and tight macroeconomic policy for European unemployment.
The Construction of “Democratic” Corporatism in Italy
Authors: BACCARO LUCIO
Published: March 2007

Based on field research at both the national and local levels, this article reconstructs the emergence of negotiated policy making in Italy in the 1990s. It argues that standard corporatist theory is totally incapable of accounting for the particular organizational mechanisms through which, at critical moments, that is, the moments in which policy change had to be introduced, consensus was mobilized among both middle-level union structures and rank-and-file workers in Italy. In fact, absent centralized organizational capacities, the Italian unions relied heavily on democratic decision-making procedures. These procedures strengthened the unions' capacity to hold to their side of the bargaining in national negotiations through essentially two types of mechanisms, aggregative and deliberative.
Academic Writing: Whose Expectations?
Authors: Allison Desmond , Wu Siew Mei
Published: March 2007

The importance of 'critical thinking', along with 'creativity' and 'originality', has long been widely proclaimed in educational circles. In Singapore, many recent government pronouncements have also strongly emphasized the importance of creative and critical thinking in relation to curriculum development. Ironically, however, these calls for the enhancement of 'thinking skills' and 'critical enabling skills' may contain unexamined assumptions, often derived from prevailing managerial expectations. Partly for this reason, any language curriculum that seeks to enhance thinking must be ready to place its own assumptions and educational practices under especially careful scrutiny.

An important part of a reflective review of a language curriculum is to ascertain the views and expectations of students and teachers themselves. This paper reports on an investigation into teachers' and students' expectations about the academic writing that students undertake in an English Language curriculum at a Singapore university. Following a brief but critical overview of some issues affecting a writing curriculum, the paper develops a grounded description and comparison of student and teacher expectations, drawing upon a combination of questionnaire responses (88 students and 18 teachers) and detailed interviews (14 students and 14 teachers). Our account of this extensive discourse data characterizes some of the main ways in which research and writing tasks, feedback, guidelines and assessment practices are talked about, valued and procedurally implemented by different participants in the undergraduate curriculum. The closing discussion suggests some general implications for the development and evaluation of knowledge and skills in education.
An Examination of Attitude Change Towards the Use of Japanese in a University English 'Conversation' Class
Authors: Burden Peter
Published: March 2007

This paper reports on a questionnaire survey carried out in the first and last classes of a single semester English 'conversation' class at a national uni versity in Japan. While the time frame is obviously limited, the project focuses on changes in attitude to using the Learners' Mother Tongue displayed by students with regards to use by both the teacher and the students themselves. It is my contention that after experience in high school the student is unsure of the rationale for English conversation, and therefore it is interesting to understand students' initial attitudes and to examine if and how attitudes have changed. By the administration of questionnaires it can be seen if learners are more positive towards the teaching approach adopted by their classroom teacher and thus they may become even more prepared to negotiate and use practical effective communicative strategies to overcome language deficiencies. The study will attempt to explain the results and discuss classroom implications.
Testing the Effectiveness of Sentence-Combining in ESL
Authors: Perkins Kyle , Konneker Beverly H.
Published: March 2007

Sentence-combining exercises were systematically presented to an experimental group of L2 freshman composition students. Data from a test assessing sentence-combining and an analytical composition scoring scheme were collected from the experimental group and a control group. The research hypothesis that the experimental group who received sentence-combining exercises would write better compositions and perform better on the sentence-combining test than the control group who didn't receive sentence-combining exercises was not fully con firmed. Several factors which might explain the findings are discussed.
Assessment of Oral Skills : a Comparison of Scores Obtained Through Audio Recordings To Those Obtained Through Face-To-Face Evaluation
Authors: Nambiar Mohana K. , Goon Cecilia
Published: March 2007

This is a report of a study on the reliability of an evaluation of oral performance through audio-taped recordings as compared to a face-to-face evaluation. The oral performance of a sample of 87 undergraduates was evaluated first in a face-to-face setting, and subsequently through audio recordings of that same performance.
Current Research in Southeast Asia
Authors: Beh Yolanda
Published: March 2007

The aim of this article is to provide information on language- related research which may be useful to researchers and anyone interested. Researchers from Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore have kindly reported on their research studies and gratitude is expressed to them. Reports are always welcome and they may be sent in the format shown below to the following address: Librarian and Head of Information Centre SEAMEO Regional Language Centre 30 Orange Grove Road Singapore 258352 Republic of Singapore
The Toefl and Its Imitators: Analyzing the Toefl and Evaluating Toefl-Prep Texts
Authors: Hilke Robert , Wadden Paul
Published: March 2007

This paper reports the results of a study that analyzed the TOEFL and identified the specific content and question types that appear in the exam as well as their ratio and placement within particular test sections. Applying this analysis, taxonomies derived from the TOEFL were used to evaluate ten leading TOEFL-prep texts. It was found that commercial texts vary considerably in the accuracy with which they represent the exam. The paper also outlines the selective revision the TOEFL underwent in July of 1995, and in closing, offers guidelines to aid in the selection of commercial texts for TOEFL-prep programmes.
Accent and Second Language Listening Comprehension
Authors: Tauroza Steve , Luk Jasmine
Published: March 2007

This paper reviews a series of studies on the effects of accent on second language listening comprehension (L2 LC). It is shown that some of the studies have been misinterpreted as indicating the existence of an own, or local, accent advantage in L2 listening. From the review, it is clear that there is insufficient evidence to support such conclusions. Given previous research findings and current state of knowledge concerning the LC process, it is hypothesised that different but familiar accents should cause no problems for L2 listeners. This hypothesis is tested in an experiment featuring 63 Hong Kong school students. The results support the hypothesis. From the findings, it is argued that degree of familiarity is the crucial issue with regard to whether a particular accent causes LC problems for L2 listeners to English. In contrast, whether or not a speaker's accent is similar to the listener's is a secondary issue, which is important only in so far as it relates to the issue of familiarity.
Mixed Capacities in Efl/Esl: Clarifying the Issues
Authors: Bruton Anthony
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this article is three-fold. First, to define mixed capacity in the EFL/ESL contexts and to identify what it really means in practice. Second, to isolate the natural and institutional causes of mixed capacities and their effects. Finally, to describe some general and specific solutions to the different causes, under the headings of communal and non-communal activity types. Some actual examples are also described.
What's Magical About the Rule-of Two for Constructing C-Tests?
Authors: Jafarpur Abdoljavad
Published: March 2007

C-tests have been suggested to be the best in the family of tests of reduced redundancy. They are claimed to be theoretically and empirically valid and reliable measures of language ability. A C-test contains four to six texts and a total of 100 items. It is constructed according to the rule-of two, which involves deleting the second half of every other word beginning from the second word of the second , sentence. This study investigates five versions of a C-test and a standard cloze test with 340 Iranians majoring in English. The C- tests were constructed with three different deletion starts and two different ratios. The results show that there is nothing magical about the rule-of two. Other deletion rates and deletion starts yield more or less similar results. The paper concludes with suggestions for improving the C-test.
Conscience de Krishna: interprétation hongroise
Authors: KAMARÁS István
Published: March 2007

The author of this article, which is a synthesis of a book based on an empirical study conducted between 1995 and 1997, mainly discusses the following questions: (1) the history of the Hare Krishna movement in Hungary; (2) the recruitment of Hungarian Krishna believers; (3) motives for joining the movement; (4) adherence or conversion to the Krishna movement? (5) a comparison of the values of Krishna believers with those of other religions; (6) the relationship between Krishna believers and wider (Hungarian) society; (7) the dialogue between Hungarian Krishna believers and Hungarian and European cultures.
From Spirits to the Bible: Ayelesili, or the Impossible Church (Congo-Brazzaville)
Authors: GRUÉNAIS Marc-Éric
Published: March 2007

Religious effervescence in the Congo River basin, which from the first stirrings of religious innovation has been marked by Kimbanguism, is today made up mostly of small movements in search of an identity, seeking at one and the same time to separate themselves from “tradition”, and from Christian churches, and to find some point of originality enabling them to claim to be religions superior to all others. The main stages of the conversion of a “minor prophet” from Congo-Brazzaville, retraced in the origin myth of Ayelesili, and the later developments of his movement, permit us to grasp the relationship, the likeness and the difference, between this kind of movement, traditional cults, and other Churches.
La Philosophie des Religions et la Sociologie des Religions
Authors: MIGUELEZ Roberto
Published: March 2007

The philosophy of religions has experienced a radical turn in the last 25 years: the universalist rationalist claim of the classical rationalist paradigm inherited from “natural theology” was strongly criticized and new paradigms were proposed to account for the religious phenomenon, particularly the following: the “philosophical empiricist”, the “post-modern fideist” and the “reformed epistemology”. We postulate that the rational status of religious phenomenon is the central issue of the paradigmatic conflict. We examine the consequences of paradigmatic presuppositions concerning the rational status of religious beliefs on the sociology of religions. We also examine the contributions of these new paradigms to the problematic of rationality.
Mysticism: Troeltsch's Third Type of Religious Collectivities
Authors: DAIBER Karl-Fritz
Published: March 2007

The author shows that “religious individualism”, in combination with highly subjective experiences and with a tendency to renounce any religious community, is the core of Troeltsch's third type. He also shows that Troeltsch regards mysticism as a phenomenon of modernity which is rooted in Christianity, particularly in Protestant mysticism and Protestant spiritualism. For the author, the significance of the present discussion rests in the discovery of the importance of a religion which has relatively little external organization. The unstable social forms of this religion, however, are only briefly mentioned by Troeltsch.
Etude du mobile religieux et de la délinquance
Authors: Travers John F. , Davis Russell G.
Published: March 2007

What are the relations between religious formation and non-delinquency ? The authors show how there is a positive, altough not perfect, correlation between the two. It is however more extensive than that found between non-delinquency and the sense of civil autho rity, the sense of the family or the group spirit. Despite the interest of the analysis and its conclusions, this study must be considered as inviting a deaper research on religion as a factor integrating the person nality in society.
Theological reflections on religio-sociological interpretations of modern "Irreligion"
Authors: Schillebeeckx E.
Published: March 2007

Apres avoir analysé les causes du dédain montré par les theologiens pour la sociologie naissante, I'auteur definit le statut de la sociologie de la religion comme science profane. Il decrit ensuite les rapports qui existent entre la recherche socio-religieuse, la théologie et la pastorale, releve les difficultés apparentes et les apports positifs.
The Church as Institution
Authors: Dienel P.
Published: March 2007

L'auteur analyse le livre de W. et H.P.M. Goddijn, paru en allemand sous le même titre, et en donne un commentaire critique, en tant que sociologue et en tant que Protestant.
Les Institutions Ecclesiastiques En Civilisations Urbaine Et Industrielle
Authors: Remy Jean
Published: March 2007

The industrial world is transforming the environment in which ecclesias tical institutions are situated. The aim of this article is to examine some characteristics of the urban environment and to reflect upon their significance when considered in connection with ecclesiastical organisa tion. External developments themselves produce, right from the outset spontaneous redefinitions which merit systematic observation. The fol lowing notes are an attempt to formulate a number of hypotheses which can be used for this purpose.

1) The residential milieu is now far less important as a primary motivating group for the most important social functions. Organizing the establishment of the clergy simply according to residential areas runs the risk of not being able to present a religion which can penetrate social life.

2) The development of mass media within the context of an urban community creates new conditions of social control. The importance of control exercised by direct observation of behaviour is diminishing and this in turn poses problems relating to the role and structure of the ecclesiastical body.

3) The ecclesiastical body is in competition with other cultural influences. Participation in activities initiated by the clergy competes with parti cipation in other social activities. This fact creates a new situation in which people are able to choose whether or not they will follow the initiatives of the clergy.

4) The urban context, where feast days have been replaced by leisure and holidays, where the separation between the sacred and the profane is less obvious than hitherto, has an effect upon the order of priority of sacerdotal activities and on the development of the leadership of the clergy.
Réorientation ou désintégration ? Une enquête sociologique sur une congrégation religieuse masculine aux Pays-Bas
Authors: Verdonk A.L.T. , Houard Jean , Lemercinier Geneviève
Published: March 2007

In the context of a Chapter of Renewal a survey was con ducted among all the members of the Netherlands Province of the Holy Family Missionaries in March, 1967. The data from this survey was then integrated into a larger research work for processing. The latter can be described as follows :
Clergy Reaction to Hypothetical Parish Unrest over a Clergyman's Social Activism
Authors: Winter J. Alan
Published: March 2007

Les données rassemblées dans cette chronique viennent illustrer la thèse selon laquelle, dans une controverse concer nant ses options temporelles, la résistance d'un membre du clergé dépend avant tout de la conception qu'il a des droits et devoirs de sa charge ministérielle, et ensuite seulement de ses vues sur le problème controversé.

Plus précisément, lorsque l'on demande à un membre du clergé quelle attitude il conseillerait en pareil cas à un col lègue, il apparaît que le degré de résistance qu'il conseille dé pend :

a) de la légitimité qu'il confère au témoignage prophétique en tant que partie intégrante du ministère chrétien ;

b) de ce qu'il approuve ou n'approuve pas le fait d'user du pouvoir et du conflit pour atteindre une fin ;

par contre, le degré de résistance qu'il conseillerait est relati vement indépendant de la conception qu'il se fait du problème discuté.

Il apparaît aussi que la solution qu'il adopte est fonction de la répartition qu'il fait, dans son emploi du temps, entre le tra vail social et le travail administratif, mais ne dépend pas du temps qu'il consacre à la pastorale.

En conclusion, il semble qu'une partie du clergé est en me sure de résoudre le conflit qui apparait entre les aspects pro phétique et pastoral du ministère.
The Attitude of Adults towards God
Authors: Van Aerde Mark , Hutsebaut Dirk , Houard Jean
Published: March 2007

Cette étude a été réalisée au moyen d'une échelle Likert. Un certain nombre de modèles intéressants en émergent. Crainte et miséricorde ne s'accordent plus aussi bien : les sujets qui accordent beaucoup d'importance à l'un en accordent moins à l'autre. Ce même modèle est également présent lors de la confrontation crainte/responsabilité de ses propres mal heurs et révolte/responsabilité. En général, les femmes attri buent un peu plus de points que les hommes.

C'est avant tout le groupe professionnel qui influence l'attitude envers Dieu : peu de différences entre cadres su périeurs et employés, pas davantage entre agriculteurs et ouvriers. Par contre, on note des différences remarquables entre ces deux grands groupes.

L'âge est également un élément déterminant: à cet égard, le pivot est environ 45 ans. Le groupe le plus âgé recherche davantage un soutien auprès de Dieu et se sent plus dépendant de Lui.
Religion and Authoritarianism
Authors: Moulian Tomás
Published: March 2007

Cet article tente de répondre à la question apparemment simple de savoir pourquoi certains régimes autoritaires font appel à certains aspects du discours et de la vision du monde catholiques comme source de légitimation. L'Auteur traite le problème à partir du cas chilien.
Recherches empiriques concernant la religion en Allemagne fédérale, en Autriche et en Suisse allémanique
Authors: Lukatis Ingrid , Krebber Hartmut
Published: March 2007

In the seventies a lot of studies dealt with religious pheno mena. They were initiated by remarkable changes of the relations people had to churches and to religion in general. In many cases the churches themselves searched for empirical data to recognize these processes more precisely. This is why most of these studies are not primarily oriented on progress of theoretical knowledge in the field of sociology of religion but on facts " relevant for practitioners' work." Although they start with theoretical reflections in one or another way they often do this with the help of other social science disciplines. Most of them borrow their theoretical bases from general sociology or social psychology.
Le bon voisin, le mauvais voisin: ébauche d'une sociologie de 1'6thos de voisinage
Authors: Michel Barbara
Published: March 2007

In this article, the author sets out to study how inhabitants of a neighbourhood invest part of their social stakes in neighbourly relations and realize a miniaturization of the play of conflict and integration.

The neighbourhood scene is the opportunity or the pretext for expressing or trying out value systems in play in social rela tions. The author has not started out by studying these values themselves. She has preferred to come to them at the end of her study. Through concrete study, she has brought out the set of relations which make up a system and which involve general value-forming mechanisms.
A quoi servent les rites séculiers
Authors: Rivière Claude
Published: March 2007

What purpose do secular rites serve?

In a functionalist perspective, too much importance has gene rally been given to the integrating function of political rites, and too exclusive an interest has been shown in those which extol order and which aim to show a national society's cohesion around common reference values expressed through symbols.

It could well be that instead of contributing to the integration of the overall community, they reinforce a specific group which is trying to exercise power. Thus some rites appear above all in con flict situations, whether they mime hostility in order to get rid of it through catharsis, or dramatize and therefore exacerbate antago nisms.

Just as religious rites tend to justify belief in the sacred and to reinforce related behaviour, political secular rites fulfil with regard to the modern sacred (i.e. that which could not be challen ged in principles, in ideology, and in power), important functions of power legitimation of asserting a hierarchy of roles, values and priorities, and of moral guidance and intensive change which is both playful and mobilizing.