(This is the manuscript which we submitted for inclusion in First Pan Asian Conference and 17th Annual Thai TESOL International Conference: Conference Proceedings.

Getting on the Information Superhighway: On-Line Resources for Language Teachers and Linguists

Kenji Kitao@@Doshisha University
S. Kathleen Kitao@@Doshisha Women's College

While there is are a great many resources related to lingustics and language teaching available on the World Wide Web, it is often difficult to find these resources. For teachers of English as a foreign/second language, linguistics, and students interested in these areas, we have developed a resource to help them locate useful information (http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/visitors/kenji/onlin. htm). It includes lists of on-line resources and CD-ROMs (Part One), journals (Part Two), and an archives (Part Three), which are resources we produced and which are available on line.

Part One

In this section, we have explained what the Internet is and what computer networks are. You can use e-mail, subscribe to lists, use distant computers, search for information, get information and documents from all over the world, and send information or documents all over the world. We have also provided suggestions for professional development for language teachers and on using the Internet for teaching English.

There are more than 66,000 computer mailing lists throughout the world, including academic, entertainment, and information lists. Most of them are free, and you can participate in discussions of various issues and ask questions to get information you want.

We have explained discussion lists: what they are, what we can do with them, what is important to know in order to use lists, and what minimum technical matters you have to know to use them.

Since on-line resources are increasing and becoming more important for research as of the use of the Internet grows, we have included useful computer mailing lists related to TEFL/TESL, for foreign languages and foreign studies, for linguistics, language related mailing lists, for communication, for computers in education, for information, looking for jobs, lists of mailing lists, and other lists.

The World Wide Web is now the largest database in the world. Most web sites are open to the public, and you can obtain useful information through them. We explained what the World Wide Web is and how you can use it effectively. We have included an extensive list of WWW sites. For your convenience, we have classified the web pages into six categories, depending on who the resources are intended for, and have classified the web pages we have links to into sixteen sections. Once you connect to the links, you will find more interesting connections, and you can get more information by just clicking on the topics you are interested in.

We included information about other on-line resources. BIDS, FirstSearch, and ERIC are very useful resources for finding papers and books related to your interests, if your institution subscribes to them. BIDS and ERIC are very useful for searching for papers that appear in journals. ERIC also has the largest database and documents on microfiche. Their database includes about 900,000 documents. In addition to using ERIC's database as a resource for searching, you can submit your papers, reports, and bibliographies to ERIC. It will be included in ERIC's database, and ERIC will reproduce it on microfiche so other people who are interested in your topic can have access to it. We have included information on submitting material to ERIC. FirstSearch includes WorldCat, probably the largest book catalogue in the world. You can search for books with it very easily. FirstSearch also allows you to search for articles in 12,000 journals and also to look at the tables of contents of journals.

We have also included information about NISS, which is the gateway for Internet searches of British university libraries. You can access almost all libraries from your e-mail account.

Commercial databases are getting more important. We included information about Lexis-Nexis, which is a huge database of news sources and legal documents from throughout the world, including newspaper articles, wire service reports, and transcripts of news broadcasts.

Part Two

We have listed important journals related to five areas: linguistics, ELT, applied linguistics, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics.

Part Three

In the Archives section, we have provided links to papers and articles or information that is available on line or on CD-Rom about papers and articles. These include information about papers and articles available on ERIC, from TESL-L, and through on-line journals. Also, there is information about academic books and textbooks that we have published and excerpts from some of these. There is also some teaching materials.

Conclusion

We believe that accumulating knowledge is important in developing research, and we also believe it is important to share our knowledge and information with people who might be interested in it. We hope that you will find this resource useful and that it will help you with your research, teaching, and professional development.

k.kitao@lancaster.ac.uk