Introduction: How to Use this Resource Effectively

1. What Is This Resource?

On-line resources (Part One) is divided into five sections: (I) Introduction; (II) Using the Internet, which gives information about the Internet and what it is useful for; (III) Mailing Lists; (IV) the World Wide Web; and (V) Other On-Line Resources.

We have constructed sections to be as independent as possible, and there is some overlapping information, though not much.

We constructed these resources to be user oriented, that is, we tried to make them as easy as possible to use. In other words, because it is time consuming to find information on the Internet, we found information for you, and we have tried to present the information in ways that will make it easy to find what you want.

We have listed useful journals for some fields. We provided information about subscription in some cases.

We have also produced some resources ourselves, and we have put them in the archive section.

2. Part One

B. the Internet
This section includes articles in which we have explained what the Internet is, what computer networks are, and how to use them. You can use e-mail, subscribe to lists, use distant computers, search for information on the World Wide Web, get information and documents from all over the world, and send information or documents all over the world. In order to help you use the Internet without inconveniencing other people unduly, we explained the netiquette, which is the set of conventions for using the Internet. We have also provided suggestions for professional development for language teachers and on using the Internet for teaching English. Since publications are important in the academia, we included how to use the Internet to help publishing.

C. Mailing Lists
There are more than 70,000 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 (III).

Since TESL-L is the largest and most useful list for people who are interested in ELT, and LINGUIST is the largest and most useful list for those interested in linguistics, we have explained each of them in detail: what they are and what you can do with them, how to subscribe to them, how to post contributions, etc. Since these lists have extensive documentation on how to use them, you can learn to use lists in general by learning to use whichever of these lists you are most interested in. (III-1 and III-2).

Since on-line resources are increasing and becoming more important for research as the use of the Internet grows, we have included useful computer mailing lists related to TEFL/TESL (III-3), for foreign languages and foreign studies (III-4), for linguistics (III-5), language related mailing lists, (III-6), for communication (III-7), for computers in education (III-8), for information (III-9) looking for jobs, (III-10), lists of mailing lists, (III-11) and other lists (III-12).

We also included lists on which postgraduate students can discuss their research, English language students can participate in discussions in English or conduct surveys for their class projects, and lists on which Japanese language students can participate in discussion and study grammar (III-13).

For most of the sections, we have provided an introduction, which gives information about what is found on the web page, how it is organized, and how you can most efficiently use the information. It is important that you read these before you look at the web page, because they give useful information.

D. the World Wide Web
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 which you might be interested in. 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 using a web browser, you will find more interesting connections, and you can get more information by just clicking on the topics you are interested in (IV).

As with the web pages for mailing lists, we have provided introductions to give information about what is found on the web page, how it is organized, and how you can most efficiently use it. It is important that you read these before you look at the web page, because they will help you find what you are interested in more easily.

E. Other On-Line Resources
We included information about other on-line resources (V). BIDS, FirstSearch, and ERIC are very useful resources for finding papers and books related to your interests. 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. Your university library may be subscribing to certain search services. You should inquire to find out what they are and how you can use them.

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. This service can also be used from Japan, and probably even from the United States.

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. They include more than news sources 5,000 news sources and more than 500 million documents.

F. Conclusion
If you subscribe to lists related to language teaching, you will often see calls for papers for conferences or publications, both newsletters and journals. Using that information, you can contact those editors and submit manuscripts after checking what kinds of manuscripts they are looking for, formats, deadlines, etc. There are also places on the Internet where you can make your papers available to the public, such as TESL-L archives, ERIC, the Internet TESL-J, TESLEJ-L, and others.

3. Part Two

We also made a list of journals related to linguistics and English language teaching in the Lancaster University library. These are the ones we thought would be particularly useful for people who are interested in TEFL/TESL or linguistics. They are in the alphabetical order (Library Serials Related to Linguistics and Language Teaching [Lancaster University] [http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/journal/library.htm]).

We also made a list of all the journals at IELE Resources Centre. The journals are listed in the alphabetical order (List of Journals at IELE Resources Centre [http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/journal/iele.htm]).

These lists were compiled by S. Kathleen Kitao. In addition to the names of the serials and the numbers held, in the cases of journals that are of particular interest, a brief description of the features is included. In some cases, there is also subscription information (an address and cost per year, if available) and information about where to submit contributions.

4. Part Three

Some of the academic books and textbooks mentioned here are available in libraries in more than one hundred countries (See Internatio nal List of Libraries (href=http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/library/library.htm).

5. Tips for Visiting my Homepage

>From my homepage, if you click "English Homepage", you will see my biodata and some useful resources for English teachers and ELT students.

>From my homepage, if you click "On-Line Resources and Journals: ELT, Linguistics, and Communication", you will see the resources which I have described above, and the major contents of this book.

"TEFL Virtual Library" has our publications and other publications which we have permission to keep in my site. We have parts of books, papers, articles, bibliographies, reviews, reports, etc. We have many resources on CALL (computer assisted language learning) and the Internet, and on language testing.

"TEFL NEWS" is a newsletter we started in March, 1997. We try to collect information on trends of research in ELT in Japan. We are planning to publish it quarterly.

"Internet" is the section where we are planning to build lessons to learn to use the Internet.

"Class Materials" is the section we are expanding to make our teaching materials available to the public.. "British Express" is the newsletter we sent to our friends from Britain while we were on sabbatical. We have included much information on British culture and language, which can be used as teaching materials in English classes.

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