Mailing Lists Related to TESL/TEFL and Foreign Language Teaching

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Kenji Kitao : Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan
S. Kathleen Kitao : Doshisha Women's College, Kyoto, Japan

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Introduction

There are many mailing lists for people who are interested in teaching English or foreign languages. We have compiled a list of about 40 mailing lists which might be interesting to you. We tried to include the names, computer addresses, list addresses, and, in some cases, descriptions, information about the list managers and their e-mail addresses, and our comments. The lists are listed alphabetically by list name.

For your convenience, we made it possible to click on computer addresses, where you send commands, and list addresses, where you post your messages. In order to use them, you need to register your e-mail address on the computer you are using, so that your e-mail message will show your return address.

If you are not used to using mailing lists, we strongly suggest that you use TESL-L to get accustomed to posting messages, choosing commands for various purposes, etc. Then you will be able to use mailing lists effectively.

If you do not know much about mailing lists, we suggest to read "Lists (Mailing Lists)". (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/internet/art-list.htm )

TESL-L, the Largest Mailing List for TESL/TEFL

TESL-L has more than 12,000 subscribers in more than 95 countries, and about 18 message are posted there per day. It is a very large and active list. It also has 8 branches, and the number of postings can be very large. In addition to that, it has a huge archive where you can find many resources. We suggest that you subscribe to TESL-L (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/list/lis-tesl.htm) and any of its branches which might be of interest to you.

Useful Lists for TESL/TEFL

In addition to TESL-L, there are many other useful lists for TEFL/TESL. We have listed them in alphabetical order. For each list, we list the name of the list, its computer address, and a brief description. We put our own comments following **. We rate the frequency of posting as follows, but this is our subjective judgment, based on activity in January and February, 1996.

Very, very active ----- more than 10 a day
very active ------------- several a day
active ------------------- one or more a day
not active -------------- one or more for a few days
inactive ----------------- less than one for a week

For the purpose of commands for e-mail and mailing lists, there is no distinction made between capital and small letters.

There are about 40 mailing lists listed in "Useful Lists for TESL/TEFL" (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/list/lis-tefl.htm). We have compiled them and added information about them in addition to making them clickable for your convenience, so you can send e-mail to their computer and list addresses. We have tested all of them and confirmed that most of them are working properly. There are a couple of lists that may not be working. We are not sure whether these lists are still functioning. Also, there may be mailing lists that we have not found.

Journals and Newsletters

Agoranews, ESL-SLE, ETNI News, and TESL-EJ were originally newsletters or journals distributed by e-mail. However, now they can be read on the World Wide Web. The first two are monthly (Agoranews at the beginning of the month and ESL-SLE on 25th). ETNI News is occasional. It is a kind of continuation of English Teachers' Electronic Newsletter. TESL-EJ is an academic e-journal which is scheduled to come out twice a year.

  • Agora Newsletter (http://www.agoralang.com:2410/agora/agoranews_current.html)
  • English Teachers' Electronic Newsletter (http://ietn.snunit.k12.il/newslett.htm)
  • ETNI News - English Teachers Newsletter (http://ramat-negev.org.il/etn/etninews.htm)
  • SNE News (http://schoolnet2.carleton.ca/sne/snenews/)
  • TESL-EJ (http://www.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/tesl-ej/) (Japan)
  • TESL-EJ (http://violet.berkeley.edu/~cwp/TESL-EJ/index.html) (the United States)

    There are many useful articles in these publications. You can read all the back issues of these as well as the current issue.

    Lists Related to Foreign Language Teaching

    FLAC-L, FLASC-L, and FLTEACH are for foreign language teachers. FLTEACH is the most active and has 10-30 postings a day. We strongly suggest to set it to digest, so that you will receive only one file a day. FLTEACH (http://www.cortland.edu/www/flteach/flteach.html) has a web page, and there are many links to useful resources.

    We are not certain about the difference between FLAC-L and FLASC-L, though the latter is supposed to be for coordinators of foreign language programs. They have occasional postings.

    Foreign language teaching in above mailing lists seems to include EFL/ESL, so they may be useful to English language teachers.

    English Language Teaching

    TESLK-12 is a sister list of TESL-L, though it is sometimes listed as a branch list. The former is for K-12, and the latter is for university and adult education. Since TESLK-12 is an independent list, you can subscribe to it without subscribing to TESL-L.

    ESLCC (http://202.23.150.181:80/users/kkitao/online/list/lis-tefl.htm#eslcc) is for community college education, but most postings are about English teaching in general.

    Special English Language Teaching

    ATEG (Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar) is for people who are interested in teaching grammar. Its web page is at http://www.pct.edu/homepage/staff/evavra/ateg/ateg.htm

    @@efltrainer-l (EFL TEACHER TRAINERS) is for English teacher trainers in Israel. If you would like to discuss something specific for teacher training, this might be a good place.EST-L is for teachers who teach English for science and technology. Its web site (Japan) (http://www.u-aizu.ac.jp/~t-orr/est1.html) and another one (France) (http://www.wfi.fr/est/est1.html) have many links to useful resources for teachers and students. Most of them seem to be related to technical and scientific writing.

    ESL-SNE is related to teaching English for special needs, but it carries a lot of information about English teaching in general. Its web site (http://schoolnet2.carleton.ca/sne/esl-sne/list.html) has many resources including SNE News.

    TESP-L is a branch list of TESL-L, and its topic is ESP (English for Specific Purposes). It is a very active list. If you are interested in ESP, it is good. We often see postings on technical writing and textbooks for different purposes. Its web site at is http://www.lsoft.com/SCRIPTS/WL.EXE?SL1=TESP-L&H=CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU.

    LTEST-L is related to language testing. If your interest is language testing, this is a good list to subscribe to. It has many postings which are not necessarily related to language testing.

    Lists Related to Language Teaching and Computers

    LL TI is associated to IALL which hosted FLEAT Conferences with LLA in Japan. Its theme is language teaching and technology. There are many postings related to computers. Many postings are not very technical.

    WRICOM is for teachers who are using computers and word processor programs for composition. Its web site is at http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/mike/wa/wricom.html#discussion.

    A TELL is for CALL (computer assisted language learning) and is based in Australia. If you are interested in CALL or language teaching in Australia, it is a good list.

    NETEACH-L is a great resource if you are interested in information related to computers or teaching languages using computers. It has many useful postings. It has a web site (http://thecity.sfsu.edu/~funweb/neteach.htm), and there are many useful links there.

    TESLCA-L is a branch of TESL-L, and it is a useful resource since all computer related information for TESL-L comes here. Though it is a branch, it has 3,546 members as of October 22, 1997. Its web site is at http://www.lsoft.com/SCRIPTS/WL.EXE?SL1=TESLCA-L&H=CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU.

    Keypal Projects

    Keypals are penpals who correspond using e-mail. There have been keypal projects arranged between classes who exchange e-mail for the study. There are four lists for arranging such projects. IECC is for finding keypals for K-12 students, and IECC-HE is for finding keypals for university students and adults. IECC-PROJECTS are lists where you can present projects using keypals, and IECC-DISCUSSION is a list for discussing issues related to keypal projects. However, these distinctions are not strictly observed by subscribers, judging from the postings. If you are thinking about letting your students write e-mail frequently, these lists are very useful. There are many postings, and we suggest to set these lists to digest.

    Regional Lists

    EFLJ is a list for English teachers in Japan. It is fairly active, and various kinds of discussions are going on. However, most postings are in Japanese, and you will rarely see postings in English.

    HWG is run by Prof. Ozeki at Chubu University in Japan for the people who are interested in hypermedia. It sounds difficult, but it is about using computers in education, particularly in English teaching. Most postings are in Japanese, but there are some informative postings in English. It is not active any more.

    JALTCALL was started by people who were interested in using computers for teaching languages in JALT. There are many interesting discussions on particular problems in Japan. You may find some job offerings in Japan on this list.

    ELTASIA is based in Thailand. It is for discussing language teaching in Asia. It is fairly active, and you will receive a lot of information on language teaching in Asia that you cannot get on most other mailing lists. There are some postings related to Japan.

    ETNI is a mailing list for K-12 teachers of English in Israel. They publish ETNI News - English Teachers Newsletter (http://ramat-negev.org.il/etn/etninews.htm) about every two months. This list, of course, is for discussing problems of English teaching in Israel, but also it also includes a lot of useful information. David Loyd, the manager of this list and editor of its newsletter, often posts information about useful web pages. We picked up many resources through this list and its resources.

    ARKTESOL is for people who are living in Arkansas, where President Bill Clinton is from. It is a small list and has about 50 members. If you are living near there, you can get to know people in your region.

    SCOLT is for people who are living in the southern United States. You will receive a posting a couple of times a week.

    CETEFL-L is a mailing list for Central-European teachers.

    @@ENGLED-L ((English Education List) is not intended for local discussions, but it is a small list with less than 300 members.

    Academic Lists

    SLART-L is for people who are interested in research on second language learning. Though it emphasizes language acquisition, there are many postings on English language teaching. It sometimes has job offer announcements.

    NIFL-ESL is for literacy study.@@ If you are interested in literacy study, we suggest that you check Useful Lists for Linguistics and English (http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/visitors/kenji/lis-ling.htm). There are several lists related to literacy studies.

    Other Mailing Lists

    GLESOL-L is a serious list for people who are interested in gay, lesbian and bisexual issues.

    Conclusion

    There are many mailing lists related to TESL/TEFL and foreign language teaching. We have tried to compile as many as possible and find out what they are actually doing. However, it is not easy to do so. We have confirmed all of these lists are still functioning, even though some are very inactive.

    We encourage you to subscribe to any of these which you might be interested in. It is important to participate in the discussions. You should have mastered the commands for the listserv program by now. If you are not familiar with commands for the other four programs, click here (http://www.brandonu.ca/~ennsnr/Resources/Roadmap/map06.html) for an overview.

    We hope these mailing lists will help you with your research and teaching.

    丂 Copyright (1996) by Dr. Kenji Kitao and Dr. S. Kathleen Kitao (Written on July 29, 1996. And revised on October 23, 1997)

    k.kitao@lancaster.ac.uk