Mainstream Textbooks Research Articles

Mainstream (Interchange Series) Vs. Non-Mainstream (Alternative View Series) English Textbooks: Students’ Perception

This study looked into the ways in which English as a foreign language (EFL) learners view a mainstream textbook (New Interchange Series) versus a non-mainstream (Alternative View Series). Of special focus was the students’ perception of the content of the textbooks used in the class, class activities, linguistic improvement, and overall satisfaction with the two textbooks. The participants of the study comprised 100 students who were divided into two equal groups: 50 students in the mainstream cohort and 50 in the non-mainstream cohort. The data was collected using an 11-item questionnaire designed to measure the main constructs of the study. This questionnaire was administered at the end of the course. Data analysis was done through the use of SPSS. The main findings indicate that students were more satisfied with the non-mainstream textbook (Alternative View) than the mainstream textbook (Interchange).

Vocabulary Instruction in Textbooks of Italian as a Foreign Language: A Descriptive Analysis

Abstract Research in second language acquisition has shown that vocabulary growth is beneficial for reading (Qian 1999, 2000), listening comprehension (Staehr 2009), and has a positive influence on writing and speaking performances (Johnson et al. 2016; Levelt 1995). Vocabulary learning is hence a central pillar in the second language classroom. The activities used to enable the acquisition of new vocabulary play a crucial role in the learners’ path to proficiency. In this regard, the textbooks used are important since they can largely influence what types of vocabulary activities are used by the teachers in the classroom (Allen 2008; Tavakoli and Wright 2020; Woodward 1989). Nation (2013) provides a useful framework to analyze such activities. He identifies four strands that should be used in a balanced way to provide students with a comprehensive variety of tools to learn and apply new vocabulary. This study explores to what extent the four strands of activities are present in mainstream textbooks of Italian as a Foreign Language. This study also bridges a gap in the literature, since little research on vocabulary instruction has been done on the textbooks used for languages other than English. The result of our analysis shows that the Italian textbooks mostly focus on vocabulary aspects such as form-meaning mapping and grammar, leaving less room for meaning focused input and output. Furthermore, no activities that aimed at fluency development were found.

Ten Books Every ECON Student Should Read

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, student groups demonstrated against mainstream economics with its emphasis on abstract mathematical models at the expense of real-world issues. To this end, I have reviewed ten books, published in the last five years, to introduce students to the criticisms leveled against mainstream textbook theory, to offer diverse perspectives, to address contemporary challenges including climate change and economic inequality, to introduce modern monetary theory, and to highlight the limitations of radical left-wing rhetoric. These books confirm that the way ahead in economics education is through addressing real-world issues and upholding pluralist perspectives.

The Application of Lagrange Multipliers in Consumer Choice Theory

This article deals with the consumer choice theory developed by Irving Fisher, Francis Edgeworth, Vilfredo Pareto, and John Hicks. A three-dimensional utility function is presented as an alternative to indifference curves. In mainstream textbooks, the indifference curves together with the budget constraint are used to find the optimum of a consumer graphically at a point where the budget line is a tangent line to an indifference curve. In this article, a vertical cross-section of the three-dimensional utility function and the Lagrange multipliers are applied to find the optimum of a consumer directly from the three-dimensional utility function subject to the budget constraint.

What prevents mainstream evolutionists teaching the whole truth about how genomes evolve?

The common belief that the neo-Darwinian Modern Synthesis (MS) was buttressed by the discoveries of molecular biology is incorrect. On the contrary those discoveries have undermined the MS. This article discusses the many processes revealed by molecular studies and genome sequencing that contribute to evolution but nonetheless lie beyond the strict confines of the MS formulated in the 1940s. The core assumptions of the MS that molecular studies have discredited include the idea that DNA is intrinsically a faithful self-replicator, the one-way transfer of heritable information from nucleic acids to other cell molecules, the myth of “selfish DNA”, and the existence of an impenetrable Weismann Barrier separating somatic and germ line cells. Processes fundamental to modern evolutionary theory include symbiogenesis, biosphere interactions between distant taxa (including viruses), horizontal DNA transfers, natural genetic engineering, organismal stress responses that activate intrinsic genome change operators, and macroevolution by genome restructuring (distinct from the gradual accumulation of local microevolutionary changes in the MS). These 21st Century concepts treat the evolving genome as a highly formatted and integrated Read–Write (RW) database rather than a Read-Only Memory (ROM) collection of independent gene units that change by random copying errors. Most of the discoverers of these macroevolutionary processes have been ignored in mainstream textbooks and popularizations of evolutionary biology, as we document in some detail. Ironically, we show that the active view of evolution that emerges from genomics and molecular biology is much closer to the 19th century ideas of both Darwin and Lamarck. The capacity of cells to activate evolutionary genome change under stress can account for some of the most negative clinical results in oncology, especially the sudden appearance of treatment-resistant and more aggressive tumors following therapies intended to eradicate all cancer cells. Knowing that extreme stress can be a trigger for punctuated macroevolutionary change suggests that less lethal therapies may result in longer survival times.

Positional Analysis: A Multidimensional and Democracy-Oriented Approach to Decision-Making and Sustainability

Essential principles of democracy are threatened in many parts of the world. In mainstream economics textbooks, reference to democracy is marginal or non-existent. At issue is if economics as a discipline can contribute to strengthen democracy in policy-making and decision situations more generally. In this essay, it is proposed that democracy becomes part of the definition of economics. While mainstream neoclassical cost–benefit analysis (CBA) is criticized as being technocratic, positional analysis (PA) connected with institutional ecological economics is advocated and presented with its essential elements. While a specific ideological orientation with emphasis on markets is built into CBA, PA represents an attempt to identify more than one ideological orientation or narrative as relevant among actors related to an issue. This is part of an attempt to carry out a many-sided analysis. If we wish to make the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) part of analysis, then multidimensional thinking is needed. PA is an attempt to avoid the “monetary reductionism” of CBA in favor of an analysis where monetary and non-monetary impacts (of different kinds) are separated and where, particularly on the non-monetary side, issues of inertia and irreversibility of impacts are observed.

Hegemonic Past: Exclusion of Subaltern Histories in NCERT Textbooks

History textbooks are always a site of contestation. Therefore, present political struggles for maintaining hegemony or overthrowing it play on the site of history. History as discipline has always been dominated by androcentric values. Therefore, feminist historiography was emerged which not only criticized existing androcentric historiographies but suggested new ways to do history. This article tries to analyze inclusions and exclusions within history textbooks. In the first part of the article I will try to analyze why certain histories never became part of the textbook and what are the sources that are used to write history. In this article I will analyze VIII standard NCERT history textbooks in India (Central level Government textbooks) through caste and gender lenses. In 2005 the theme of NCERT History textbooks changed from ‘our past’ (singular) to ‘our pasts’ (plural). However, this change does not reflect in the content of the textbook. I am using content analysis as a method to analyze pictures and texts. I will also try to contextualize the text within time and space. The exclusion and inclusion of history in the textbooks depends on the contemporary caste, patriarchal hegemony in our society. The dominant mainstream history has become part of these textbooks, but subaltern history is excluded from it. In this article I will also talk about the Dalit histories, Dalit women histories and tribal histories which are silenced as ‘other’ and remained part of counterculture but did not become part of these mainstream textbooks. In the later part of the article, I will try to look in what way the histories are altered to fit in a particular framework especially the histories of subalterns. At the end I will focus on how textbooks always build the idea of hegemonic nation and nationalism in students mind. Therefore, through this article I will analyze the ways through which the ‘other’ is being silenced in history textbooks.

A Skeptic’s Guide to Modern Monetary Theory

This essay discusses a new approach to macroeconomics called modern monetary theory (MMT). It identifies the key differences between MMT and the approach found in mainstream textbooks. It concludes that while MMT contains some kernels of truth, its most novel policy prescriptions do not follow cogently from its premises.

Using Texts Which Address Local Issues to Create a Discursive Space within an Undergraduate Writing Course

ABSTRACT This study explores whether collaboratively writing about local issues would enable learners to deepen their understanding of their relationship with their own social context. A discursive space within an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course at an institution of higher education in Qatar was created. This was accomplished by replacing the readings within a mainstream EAP textbook with texts which explored local issues. This provided an opportunity for female undergraduate students (N = 30) to write term papers about some of the discourses which permeated their lives. Data were collected using open-ended questionnaires as well as examining participants’ term papers. Writing the term papers enabled some participants to become more aware of ongoing societal change and reflect on how they are located within this process. Elements of critical pedagogy were brought into a mainstream EAP course whilst at the same time respecting Qatar’s traditions and culture.

Opportunity to learn problem solving in Dutch primary school mathematics textbooks

In the Netherlands, mathematics textbooks are a decisive influence on the enacted curriculum. About a decade ago, Dutch primary school mathematics textbooks provided hardly any opportunities to learn problem solving. In this study we investigated whether this provision has changed. In order to do so, we carried out a textbook analysis in which we established to what degree current textbooks provide non-routine problem-solving tasks for which students do not immediately have a particular solution strategy at their disposal. We also analyzed to what degree textbooks provide ‘gray-area’ tasks, which are not really non-routine problems, but are also not straightforwardly solvable. In addition, we inventoried other ways in which present textbooks facilitate the opportunity to learn problem solving. Finally, we researched how inclusive these textbooks are with respect to offering opportunities to learn problem solving for students with varying mathematical abilities. The results of our study show that the opportunities that the currently most widely used Dutch textbooks offer to learn problem solving are very limited, and these opportunities are mainly offered in materials meant for more able students. In this regard, Dutch mainstream textbooks have not changed compared to the situation a decade ago. A textbook that is the Dutch edition of a Singapore mathematics textbook stands out in offering the highest number of problem-solving tasks, and in offering these in the materials meant for all students. However, in the ways this textbook facilitates the opportunity to learn problem solving, sometimes a tension occurs concerning the creative character of genuine problem solving.

Love your neighbor: Nazi soldiers and Femmes Fatales in Czech cinema

Analysis of popular culture can offer a better understanding of spatial representations prevailing in the everyday discourse than the insights inferred from official statements or mainstream scientific textbooks. Our everyday thinking about Central European space might be significantly different from representations outlined in texts written by intellectuals and politicians. In fact, there is a telling absence of common features among representations of different Central European countries in Czech films. These representations shape the process of meaning-making and they can help us better grasp the position of a country in relation to its neighbors too. Except for Germany and Slovakia, other actors from the immediate vicinity are virtually non-existent in Czech visual popular culture. While Germans are mostly male Nazi soldiers, Slovakia is described as an underdeveloped, mountainous territory with oversupply of beautiful, vivacious women. Data from 50 box-office hits and critically acclaimed movies produced during the last 20 years illustrate this argument. Such a systematic study of popular culture is not only more revealing than a simple focus on a few illustrative artworks, but it also increases the added value of discourse analysis that pays attention to predication and membership categories.

Rod Hill ve Tony Myatt, İktisat: Eleştirel Ders Kitabı: Eleştirel Düşünürün Mikroiktisat Klavuzu

The book, written by Rod Hill and Tony Myatt, is a critical economic book directed at mainstream textbooks, general evaluation of the book was made with the contents of each section and the main idea were presented for the examination.

Bulles de France: les stéréotypes et l’interculturel en BD par Géraldine Jeffroy

the book is centered on the métropole; there is no mention of la francophonie, which is a serious deficiency in any modern French textbook.However,as experienced instructors know, no textbook is perfect, and Voilà does serve as a good resource for adult beginning French students and their instructors. Learners enjoy the diversity of activities and the authentic sources as well as the useful chapter topics. Voilà is thus an effective textbook for teaching material relevant to adult students’ contexts. University of Wisconsin, Madison Sage Goellner Jeffroy, Géraldine, et Unter. Bulles de France: les stéréotypes et l’interculturel en BD. Grenoble: PUG, 2013. ISBN 978-2-7061-2201-9. Pp. 144. 19 a. Desperately looking for a change of pace in the classroom? This text adopts a nonconventional approach to the discovery of contemporary French society as it proposes humoristic comic strips as a point of departure to the discussion of social issues. The book is organized around eight main themes such as sports, public health, or working life. While the themes are typical of those found in mainstream textbooks’ cultural inserts, each explores more specific topics such as the transformation of urban life with the development of the Vélib’, or the debate around GMO and organic foods. Each main category includes five or six related topics with the following structure. The first two sections, Pour commencer and Comprendre, respectively, propose prereading activities and comprehension activities related to the study of the comic strip. A third section, Imaginer/S’exprimer, makes the transition between the text analysis and cultural discussion questions as it encourages students to personally relate to the topics at hand. A fourth section, Pour aller plus loin, provides students historical and background explanations on the cultural content and invites them to further reflect on the given topic,often by comparing their findings with their own cultural experience. Finally, a lexical insert concludes each section to give students the necessary tools to understand the comic strip and express an opinion about its content. The text’s pedagogical approach lies within the recommendations of the CERCL (Cadre européen commun de référence pour les langues) by mainly focusing on the development of students’ sociocultural competence.As such, Bulles de France is not a college language method that includes grammatical explanations or activities pertaining to the mechanics of language learning. Nevertheless, this text provides the premises for a course rich in discussions as it includes visual literacy, as well as analysis of non-verbal communication and onomatopoeia via the study of comic strips. The ideal target audience has an intermediate level, although given its structure and content, each section could be easily adapted to a level as low as novice-mid on the ACTFL proficiency scale. In fact, the accompanying website suggests pedagogical approaches for lower levels, as well as cultural references for further activities (songs, websites, etc.). Instructors of upper level courses will also easily complement the manual with other media, debate 190 FRENCH REVIEW 89.3 Reviews 191 questions, or writing activities. Given its flexibility in approach, content, and structure, Bulles de France could be used as a complementary resource in any language class. It could also act as the main text for a course focusing on contemporary civilization or current events, as it would bring a less dramatic perspective to consider more delicate topics such as secularism, freedom of speech, or parity in politics.As students become more and more familiar with the comics’ main character Geoffroy, not only will they get a better insight into contemporary French issues, but also on the French themselves. And this, through the study of stereotypes, whether they appear in gestures, comportments , attitudes, or beliefs within each of the comics. University of Wisconsin, La Crosse Virginie Cassidy Laliberté, Robert, et Aleksandra Grzybowska, éd. Le Québec, connais-tu? Québec: PU du Québec, 2014. ISBN 978-2-7605-3923-5. Pp. 923. $100 Can. Cet excellent programme, unique en son genre et seulement disponible en format numérique (pdf), se compose de sept ouvrages qui peuvent être achetés séparément ou en série complète. Il s’adresse aux professeurs...

Minsky on Banking: Early Work on Endogenous Money and the Prudent Banker

In this paper, I examine whether Hyman P. Minsky adopted an endogenous money approach in his early work — at the time that he was first developing his financial instability approach. In an earlier piece (Wray 1992), I closely examined Minsky’s published writings to support the argument that, from his earliest articles in 1957 to his 1986 book (as well as a handout he wrote in 1987 on “securitization”), he consistently held an endogenous money view. I’ll refer briefly to that published work. However, I will devote most of the discussion here to unpublished early manuscripts in the Minsky archive (Minsky 1959, 1960, 1970). These manuscripts demonstrate that in his early career Minsky had already developed a deep understanding of the nature of banking. In some respects, these unpublished pieces are better than his published work from that period (or even later periods) because he had stripped away some institutional details to focus more directly on the fundamentals. It will be clear from what follows that Minsky’s approach deviated substantially from the postwar “Keynesian” and “monetarist” viewpoints that started from a “deposit multiplier.” The 1970 paper, in particular, delineates how Minsky’s approach differs from the “Keynesian” view as presented in mainstream textbooks. Further, Minsky’s understanding of banking in those years appears to be much deeper than that displayed three or four decades later by much of the post-Keynesian endogenous-money literature.

On the Equivalent Annual Cost Method

The equivalent annual cost (EAC) method is a useful tool in asset pricing, lease financing and corporate investment. It deals with projects with different economic lives and has wide applications in many fields outside the finance or even business. However, the important EAC concept and its applications are not always very well understood even within the finance academia. There are a few misunderstandings surrounding 1this widely taught and practiced methodology as evidenced by our experience with finance professionals over the past decades and the lack of clarity in all the mainstream textbooks we have surveyed. One of them is the misconception that the EAC method requires infinite time horizon and infinite repetitions of the identical project or equipment. Given its importance and wide application, the finance profession has an obligation to serve well its gatekeeper role by not overlooking these misconceptions. Thus far, no one has raised and addressed these misconceptions. We fill in this void by explicitly revealing, explaining and addressing these misconceptions. Specifically, we argue that infinite horizon is a convenience but not a necessity by showing how the method can be used for projects or assets with finite horizons and what cautions one has to take. We also provide threads for future studies along this line. Our work makes a marginal contribution the finance theory, pedagogy and practice.

The authenticity continuum: Towards a definition incorporating international voices

The choice of what materials to use in the language classroom is perhaps one of the most fundamentally important and difficult decisions teachers and those responsible for choosing textbooks are faced with. Authenticity is often seen as a desirable component in the content we select and adapt for our language learners, and it has been shown that authentic materials are more motivating, even for low-level learners (Peacock, 1997). The term authentic is often used to describe materials which were not originally designed for the purpose of language learning, but that were designed to have some purpose within the target language culture, such as a newspaper or novel. An unfortunate consequence of this is that authenticity is still often defined in reference to the target language's ‘native speakers’ or L1 community, particularly in EFL contexts, or what Kachru (1985) would label the Outer Circle communities. In other words, where English is taught as a foreign language, both teachers and students often regard ‘native-speakers’ as being the ideal model and therefore an example of authenticity. For example, Tan (2005) criticises corpora investigations of learner English for holding the view that authentic language use is equivalent to ‘native-speaker’ usages. She goes on to criticise not only corpus research but also textbook publishers for still not taking into account ‘the inextricable link between language and culture’ (2005: 127). In the academic world, culturally embedded notions of authenticity relating to ‘native-speakers’ have been challenged for decades (Smith, 1976). And yet I would argue that in mainstream textbooks and in most EFL language classrooms the native speaker still retains a ‘privileged position’ (Clark & Paran, 2007: 407). As Widdowson (1996: 68) puts it:Authenticity concerns the reality of native-speaker language use: in our case, the communication in English which is realized by an English-speaking community. But the language which is real for native speakers is not likely to be real for learners […] They belong to another community and do not have the necessary knowledge of the contextual conditions which would enable them to authenticate English in native-speaker terms. Their reality is quite different.

Websites of note.

Websites of note.

Full Employment: The Road Not Taken

It is common knowledge that John Maynard Keynes advocated bold government action to deal with recessions and unemployment. What is not commonly known is that modern Keynesian bear little, if any, resemblance to policy measures Keynes himself believed would guarantee true full employment over long run. This paper corrects this misconception and outlines the road not taken; that is, long-term program for full employment found in Keynes’s writings and elaborated on by others in works that are missing from mainstream textbooks and policy initiatives. The analysis herein focuses on why private sector ordinarily fails to produce full employment, even during strong expansions and in presence of strong government action. It articulates reasons why job of policymaker is, not to nudge private firms to create jobs for all, but to do so itself directly as a matter of last resort. This paper discusses various designs of direct job creation policies that answer Keynes’s call for long-run full employment policies.

The Realist Case for Global Reform. By William E. Scheuerman. Malden, MA: Polity, 2011. 219p. $26.95.

This is a book about the contributions of mid-twentieth-century classical realists, first and foremost E. H. Carr, Hans Morgenthau, and Reinhold Niebuhr. The argument is that the “realism” defended by these scholars is sadly misrepresented in mainstream textbooks. Textbook renditions of realism emphasize the pursuit of national interest and the importance of Realpolitik, deny morality any meaningful role in international politics, and confirm the primacy of the sovereign nation-state and the fragility of international institutions. Realists look to the balance of power as the major instrument in preserving peace, and they reject the idea that anarchy can be transformed as a result of globalization and interstate cooperation, even in advanced cases of the latter, such as the European Union.

Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism, by Jim Stanford

Jim Stanford Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism, Pluto Press: London, 2008, 360 pp: 9780745327501 12.99 [pounds sterling] (pbk) Jim Stanford's Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism is a wonderful book. Clearly written and highly accessible, it provides an excellent introduction to the capitalist economy, from a radical perspective. The book began life as a guide to economics for trade unionists, and it is refreshingly free of the unrealistic abstractions that characterise mainstream economics textbooks, but without 'dumbing down'. Throughout, the focus is on demystifying the economy, which Stanford views as fundamentally socially embedded, experienced by everyone in the normal course of their everyday lives, and therefore amenable to understanding without the need for arcane, expert knowledge. In keeping with this, Economics for Everyone is infused with a critique of orthodox economic thought which, according to Stanford, presents itself as objective and scientific, yet by simultaneously sanctioning privilege, inequality and exploitation, is inherently political. In contrast to mainstream economics, Stanford draws upon a range of heterodox traditions (Marxist, institutionalist, Keynesian and feminist) to construct an approach to political economy focused on the conditions that lead to the production of a surplus, and on how and to whom it is distributed. The book adopts a broadly historical materialist perspective whereby human labour, and the conditions under which it occurs, are at the centre of economic analysis. For Stanford, like Marx, only human labour produces value, and this analytical lens allows the book to frame people's everyday experiences of work, paid and unpaid, as constitutive of economic activity. Stanford therefore moves well beyond the orthodox economic focus on markets and prices, although a good understanding of these mechanisms is also provided. In the book's first section, Stanford introduces some basic tools of economic analysis. The economy, he explains, is constituted by 'all the work that human beings perform in order to produce the things we need and use in our lives', and the conditions under which such work is performed. Unlike most mainstream textbooks, he recognises a variety of approaches to understanding the economy and the way the dominant neoclassical approach, by focusing simply upon models of individual decision-making, tends to obscure the historical specificity of capitalism. The second section examines the underlying dynamics of capitalist economies. Stanford outlines the class relations between wage labourers and the owners of capital that give rise to profit-oriented production under capitalism. Very usefully, Stanford advocates the use of unit labour costs as the key metric for understanding the relationships between capital and labour, due to its expression of relative compensation, work intensity and productive efficiency. Later in the book he uses this framework to show that the distribution of the economic surplus depends upon political and economic power rather than just the impersonal 'market forces' as understood by mainstream economists. Moreover, Stanford moves his analysis beyond the spheres of markets and firms, exploring how the household is an economic unit that is crucial to both social and economic reproduction. In the third section, Stanford outlines some of the more systemic features of capitalism. Competition between profit-oriented firms is posited as a key dynamic. Yet Stanford also recognises that the model of perfect competition favoured by orthodox economists offers an unrealistic description of actually existing markets, which are characterised by large oligopolistic corporations with significant market power that benefit from economies of scale. …