Integrating language‐and‐culture teaching: an investigation of Spanish teachers' perceptions of the objectives of foreign language education

A recent shift has been noticeable in foreign language education theory. Previously, foreign languages were taught as a linguistic code. This then shifted to teaching that code against the sociocultural background of, primarily, one country in which the foreign language is spoken as a national language. More recently, teaching has reflected on language and culture in an integrated way with a view to preparing learners to use the foreign language in intercultural contact situations. Though in many countries national curricula for the teaching of foreign languages have been slow in the uptake of this shift in thinking, recent curricular guidelines tend to focus more explicitly on the sociocultural dimension of foreign language education, distinguishing between cognitive, attitudinal and behavioural objectives to be attained in the area of language‐and‐culture teaching. This change in focus in curricular guidelines entails a change in the expectations voiced towards foreign language teachers. Research on innovation in education has shown that teachers' perceptions of the innovation to a large extent determine the success of that innovation. This paper reports on an investigation among Spanish secondary school EFL teachers, focusing on the extent to which teachers support the new culture‐and‐language teaching objectives. Our findings suggest that teachers are willing to support the new objectives, but that they experience conflicts when having to prioritize language teaching and culture teaching objectives.     

The gender wage gap and wage arrears in Russia: Evidence from the RLMS

This paper re-examines the gender wage gap in Russia between 1994 and 1998 taking into account the pervasiveness of Russias non-payment institutions. Using censored regression techniques we investigate wage discrimination at different sections of the income distribution and for various important sub-groups. We find that the wage gap is distributed unevenly. Most notably, women at the lower end of the income distribution suffer the highest degree of discrimination. However, we find that wage arrears and payment in-kind attenuated wage discrimination, particularly amongst the lowest paid workers, suggesting that Russian enterprise managers assigned importance to equity considerations when allocating these forms of non-payment.All correspondence to Carmen A Li. We are grateful for the helpful comments and suggestions of Vanessa Fry, Amanda Gosling, Tim Hatton, Alastair McAuley and two anonymous referees. The usual disclaimer applies. Responsible editor: Junsen Zhang.     

Internal and External Social Capital for Radical Product Innovation: Do They Always Work Well Together?

We examine the role of internal and external relational social capital (SC) as determinants of radical product innovation (RPI). By analysing both sides of SC, we provide interesting insights on their relative influence and their interaction effect on this type of innovation. Besides, traditional assumptions on SC and innovation are questioned. In our empirical study using a sample of 142 manufacturing and service companies we found that, of the two types of SC analysed, internal SC is the most relevant predictor of RPI in relation to either technological or market dimensions. The influence of external SC is not as strong as the internal one. Regarding their interaction effect, external SC reduces the positive effect of internal SC on the market dimension of RPI. Interesting implications arise for practitioners, who should pay special attention to the higher impact of internal SC on RPI and the need to carefully manage the difficulties that emerge when it is combined with external SC.     

The impact of tax-financed pensions on poverty reduction in Latin America: Evidence from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica and Uruguay

In many Latin American countries, tax-financed pensions (TFPs) have expanded, mainly resulting from growing informalization of employment and stagnating or declining pension insurance coverage. In the five countries examined in this article, TFPs have generally been effective in reducing poverty and indigence. In Brazil rural social assistance pensions cut the incidence of destitution among poor older people by 95 per cent. In Chile TFPs considerably improved their poverty reduction effectiveness between 1990 and 2000. Tax-financed pensions have therefore been seen as an instrument to supplement contributory pension coverage and boost overall social security coverage. A key challenge is to increase pension insurance coverage through existing statutory pension insurance or special contributory schemes targeted on workers in the informal economy. Otherwise, TFPs could become financially and socially unsustainable in the future. There are also various ways to improve the financing, administration and eligibility criteria of TFPs, particularly because it is necessary to define consistent structure and benefit policies between these and contributory schemes.     

SOVEREIGN DEBT RELIEF AND ITS AFTERMATH

This paper studies sovereign debt relief in a long‐term perspective. We quantify the relief achieved through default and restructuring in two distinct samples: 1920–1939, focusing on the defaults on official (government to government) debt in advanced economies after World War I; and 1978–2010, focusing on emerging market debt crises with private external creditors. Debt relief was substantial in both eras, averaging 21% of GDP in the 1930s and 16% of GDP in recent decades. We then analyze the aftermath of debt relief and conduct a difference‐in‐differences analysis around the synchronous war debt defaults of 1934 and the Baker and Brady initiatives of the 1980s/1990s. The economic landscape of debtor countries improves significantly after debt relief operations, but only if these involve debt write‐offs. Softer forms of debt relief, such as maturity extensions and interest rate reductions, are not generally followed by higher economic growth or improved credit ratings. (JEL: E6, F3, N0, H6)     

Covid and Public Funds: More Opportunities for a Misuse? The Case of the Intermediate Governments of Galicia

Public Organization Review - Corruption and inefficiency of public funds pose a risk in public administrations. This paper analyses the corruption risk at the local level by analysing indicators of...