Lists (Mailing Lists)

1. What are lists?

There are many lists.*1 Liszt list search web page lists more than 70,000 lists. Each list is related to a particular broad or narrow topic. However, there are mainly four categories, based on their purposes: academic topics, information, entertainment, and commercial purposes. There are many lists related to TESOL (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/list/lis-tefl.htm), foreign languages (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/list/lis-fore.htm), linguistics (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/list/lis-ling.htm), and Useful lists for computer related education (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/list/lis-comp.htm). There are even Student Lists studying English or Japanese (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/list/lis-stud.htm). Surprisingly, almost all of them are free. They are really worth investigating.

Many of the lists are discussion groups, and you can ask questions, participate in discussions, express your opinions, or answer other people's questions. You will also receive useful information about conferences, publications, software, etc., or you can send out such information. In large, active lists, if you send a question, you will often get answers within a day.

There are some lists on which you can only receive information, as if you were subscribed to a journal or newsletter, except that the information comes to you by e-mail.*2 You receive academic articles or information. Information and commercial lists also send you information about new lists, world wide web sites, products, etc. You can read whatever you receive, but you do not have the opportunity to discuss it with other subscribers.

Each list has its own purpose, scope and membership. Large lists can have more than 10,000 subscribers, and small ones can have less than 100. Some lists have strict rules, and some are very informal and you find many personal messages. Some lists approve subscribers individually, but most of them automatically accept subscriptions, though some of them ask for confirmation or have a questionnaire about the subscriber. Some lists have passwords for special operations.

In order to post your message to a list, you have to subscribe to it. A very few lists require special authorization to post messages. Some lists are moderated, and contributions are screened before they are posted. Others are unmoderated, and all contributions are distributed to all subscribers automatically.

2. What can you do with lists?

There are lists on which you can conduct surveys for your research or find keypals for your students.*3 You can subscribe to some lists in order to find a job.*4 In addition, there are lists for students of English, where they can have an opportunity to communicate with other students of English on subjects they are interested in.*5 There is a list on which students can conduct surveys for their projects.*6 There are lists which students can use to practice Japanese.*7 There is the list for postgraduate researchers in applied linguistics run by British Association for Applied Linguistics.*8

You can download previous postings from the archive of most lists. You will find out what kinds of discussions there were or what announcements were made in the past.

Some lists have many useful resources in the archives, and you can download them for your research or teaching. Of course you can post your documents to the archive for other researchers' use.*9

Using lists, you can obtain useful information, find partners for your research or teaching projects, help your students, and contribute to your profession.

3. What is important to know to use lists?

One way to learn about lists is to subscribe to any which sound interesting. If the lists you subscribe to do not turn out to be interesting, you can post questions about other lists which might suit your interests better. Other list members may be able to give you information about which lists might be of interest to you.

4. What you need to know about technical matters

It is very, very important that you always send these commands to the computer program address (which starts with "listserv," "majordomo," "listproc," etc.), not to the list, and the computer will either respond by doing what you want or send you message telling you that it cannot do what you want. You send your posts to the list address (which starts with the name of the list), and your posts will be distributed to all of the list members. If you want to make a complaint or suggestion about the administration of the list or if you want to ask a question, you send the message to the list owner (address listed in the welcome message).

For example:

listserv@cunyvm.cuny.edu
computer program address

SLART-L@cunyvm.cuny.edu
list address

Kate Garretson kgahc@cunyvm.cuny.edu
list manager

At minimum, you should know the following commands.

Subscribe listname your firstname lastname
(subscribing to the list)

unsubscribe listname
(leaving the list permanently)

set listname digest
(receiving one file a day, with all the posts from that day)

set listname nomail
(stopping mail temporarily)

set listname mail
(restarting mail)

index listname
(getting the index of the archive)

get filename filetype listname
(downloading files from the archive)

For other computer programs, you can see basic commands here (http://202.23.150.181:80/users/kkitao/online/list/lis-guis.htm#advance).

5. Conclusions

*2 TESLEJ-L (listserv@cmsa.berkley.edu) is an electronic journal on TESOL. Newlist (listserv@vm1.nodak.edu) offers information on new lists or websites.

*3 IECC (iecc-request@stolaf.edu) is a list for looking for penpals K-12, and IECC-HE (iecc-he-request@stolaf.edu) is for looking for penpals for university students. IECC-PROJECT (iecc-project-request@stolaf.edu) is for conducting projects, and you can conduct surveys for your teaching or research.

*4 TESL-L has a branch list for people interested in looking for English teaching jobs. To subscribe to it, send the following message to listserv@cunyvm.cuny.edu. Do not write anything in the subject line.

Subscribe tesl-l your firstname lastname
set tesl-l nomail

subscribe tesljb-l your firstname lastname
set tesljb-l digest

• INTRO-SL : Discussion List for New Members
• CHAT-SL : General Discussion List (Low level)
• DISCUSS-SL : General Discussion List (High level)
• BUSINESS-SL : Discussion List on Business and Economics
• ENGL-SL : Discussion List on Learning English
• EVENT-SL : Discussion List on Current Events
• MOVIE-SL : Discussion List on the Cinema
• MUSIC-SL : Discussion List on Music
• SCITECH-SL : Discussion List on Science, Technology & Computers
• SPORT-SL : Discussion List on Sports

*7 There are several lists for this purpose.

The Gakusei Lists --> JAPANESE LANGUAGE STUDENT E-MAIL DISCUSSION LIST listproc@hawaii.edu

• Gakusei-L first to second year, beginners
• Gakuseik-l using kana and kanji
• Gakusei2-L second to third year, mid to high intermediate
• Gakusei2k-l using kana and kanji
• Gakusei3-L fourth year and beyond, advanced speakers
• Bunpou-L asking questions about grammar
• Sensei-L for the teachers who use the aboove lists for instruction