We have compiled a list of mailing lists which might be useful or interesting for teachers, researchers, or students interested in TESL/TEFL, linguistics, and communication. This web resource covers most useful basic mailing lists for those areas.
If you are not familiar with mailing lists, we suggest that you read "Lists (Mailing Lists)" (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/internet/art-list.htm), before you go on.
The lists of mailing lists are divided into eleven sections. Lists are listed alphabetically, with the name of the list, the computer and list address, and in some cases, a description of the list, information about the list manager, etc. A table of contents appears at the beginning of each section. You can click on the name of the list and jump to the information about that list. Some computer and list addresses are also clickable, and in those cases, you can click on the list and send commands or messages by e-mail.
"Useful Lists for Information" includes lists which provide information. "Useful Lists for Looking for Jobs" includes lists which might help you to find a job. "Other Useful Lists" provides information about miscellaneous lists. "Student Lists: Useful Lists for Teaching/Learning English and Japanese" is a list of lists for postgraduate students who study applied linguistics, EFL/ESL students, and students who are studying Japanese.
"Language Related Mailing Lists on WWW" and "Mailing Lists for Communication" are links to parts of other web pages. The former has information on the web pages of lists, and the latter is a list of mailing lists related to communication. "List of Mailing Lists" are resources to find lists of your interests.
Even if you know a little about mailing lists, we suggest that you at least read "Using LINGUIST for Research" if your interest is in linguistics or "Using TESL-L for Research and Teaching English" if your interest is in TESL/TEFL. LINGUIST is the most user friendly mailing list among the ones we know of. We suggest that you try to do what we explain yourself. This procedure will help you learn about mailing lists. Most mailing lists using the listserv program are very similar.
Since LINGUIST is on the web, and you handle many of the commands using the web page, it might be difficult for you to understand how to do the commands that are done directly by e-mail. You might try TESL-L even if your main interest is linguistics. These listserv commands are very similar to those of other mailing lists. Once you learn them, you can handle other mailing lists well, even if they have different computer programs. Refer to the commands in "List (Mailing Lists)".
After you learn how to subscribe and unsubscribe, post messages, send contributions to the archive, download previous discussions and resources from the archive, we suggest that you try to subscribe to other lists related to your interests.
If your interest is in TESL/TEFL, you can try lists in "Useful Lists for TEFL/TESL." If your interests are related to linguistics, you can find lists from "Useful Lists for Linguistics" and "Useful Lists for Foreign Languages and Foreign Studies." If you are interested in finding more mailing lists or mailing lists for specialized areas, go over "Computer Bulletin Boards for Individual Languages, or, The List of Language Lists " (http://info.ox.ac.uk/departments/langcentre/langlists.html) and Language Related Mailing Lists on WWW (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/organi.htm#mail). You will find many lists.
Electronic Mailing Lists in Linguistics (http://www.ling.rochester.edu/lists.html) has a long list of mailing lists and links.
If you already know the name of the list, or if you want to search for lists by keyword, you can use Liszt (http://www.liszt.com/) or Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists (http://www.neosoft.com/internet/paml/byname.html).
There are five major computer programs for mailing lists, and commands are not always the same. Some commands on the other four programs are different from commands on listserv, which is used by TESL-L and LINGUIST. If you are not familiar with them, Map 06 of "Patrick Crispen's Internet Roadmap, "OTHER MAIL SERVERS" (http://www.brandonu.ca/~ennsnr/Resources/Roadmap/map06.html) has lists of the major commands for five programs.
If you are interested in using computers for research or teaching, mailing lists in "Useful Lists for Use of Computers for Education" might be useful. However, the list is not limited to mailing lists for language teaching or linguistics, but for all subjects. In our experience, C-EDRES has postings describing and evaluating interesting web sites, which might be very interesting for language teachers.
When you have some free time, you can visit sites for useful information or other useful lists. You may find something you are interested in. One of our favorites is HUMOR, which posts jokes. Though most of the jokes are too difficult for EFL students, there are some easy and interesting jokes which you might be able to use in your class. Some of the jokes may reflect cultural differences or some important point about American culture. K12opps has a great many useful resources for English teachers. It carries information in many subjects, and many of the resources seem to be useful in English classes.
If you are thinking about changing jobs, there are mailing lists in "Useful Lists for Looking for Jobs". TESLJB-L has a lot of information, and you can post messages about the kind of job you are looking for, too.
If you are interested in communication, we have gathered some mailing lists in "Mailing Lists for Communication."
If you find any problems, let me know.