Discussion groups come in two forms: mailing
lists and Usenet newsgroups.
Both operate on the same general principles.
People interested in the topic of discussion
subscribe to the group and post messages so that
all members of the group may read
them. Some mailing lists and newsgroups
are moderated. That is, a person reads the
messages to ensure their appropriateness before
posting to the entire list or newsgroup.
Both types of discussion groups may be useful
to ESL students, particularly at the
Advanced level. Advanced students with
strong writing skills may participate in any
discussion group that interests them. However,
for the same reasons given previously in
e-mail, it is recommended that Beginner and Intermediate
students participate in those
devised exclusively for ESL students.
To encourage participation, try having students
complete small assignments
during the course of the term. These could
entail having to post a message to a
newsgroup or mailing list at least once, and
having to respond to a message at least once.
It is advisable to have discussion topics already
laid out.
A mailing list is an e-mail discussion group that
you must subscribe to in order to
participate (i.e., receive and post messages).
Upon subscribing to a mailing list, all mail
generated by this list will then be delivered
to your e-mail address. The messages are not
organized by topic, but rather arrive at your
mailbox in the order in which they were sent.
Generally, you may determine the issue the message
pertains to by viewing the subject
line.
Mailing lists are managed by a list server, which
is a program that processes the
commands, like subscribe and unsubscribe, sent
to it regarding the one or more lists
residing under it. The most common commercial
programs for mailing lists are
LISTSERV, ListProcessor and Majordomo.
These programs have their own addresses.
The program name heads the address, followed
by “@”, then the machine location (e.g.,
LISTSERV@cunyvm.cuny.edu). E-mail addresses
are not case-sensitive; however, by
convention LISTSERV is written in capitals, dating
from the days when e-mail addresses
were case-sensitive.
Each individual mailing list has its own e-mail
address (e.g.,
TESL-L@cunyvm.cuny.edu). This is the address
which handles the messages to be
posted to the list. A member sends the
message to this address, if the list is moderated,
then the moderator reads and evaluates the message,
and if the message is appropriate it
is then sent to all members of the list.
How to subscribe:
1. Choose a mailing list that interests
you. To search for mailing lists, start with
Tile.Net (http://tile.net/lists/),
Yahoo
(http://www.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/Mailing_Lists/),
or Liszt
(http://www.liszt.com/).
2. In order to subscribe (or unsubscribe),
you must send a message to the list
server. Do not enter anything in the subject
line. In the message portion type:
subscribe LISTNAME your-first-name your-last-name
For example:
subscribe TESL-L John Doe
To leave the list, type:
unsubscribe LISTNAME your-first-name your-last-name
3. Within a short time you should receive
a message from the list server, which
will contain instructions for the list.
4. It is a good idea to “lurk” for a short
time before becoming an active
participant. That is, read the messages
to “get a feel” for the list and ensure that it is
indeed the type of discussion you wish to participate
in before posting any messages.
5. Mailing lists can generate a large amount
of mail. To accommodate this some
lists have an option of digest format, for which
the day’s messages are summarized and
sent as one file, rather than many separate messages.
There are some mailing lists available exclusively
for ESL students at any
language level. The following are the -SL
lists, managed by Thomas Robb:
There are some other lists for students.
Subscribe in the same manner described
before; I have supplied the mailing address of
each list.
STUEPAP (Student
Electronic Newspaper Mailing List)
For students who are working at putting student newspapers on-line.
Web site at http://www.webgeeks.com/stuepap/
Subscribe to: LISTSERV@vm.temple.edu
IECC-SURVEYS
Gives students a chance to conduct class surveys for projects.
Subscribe to: iecc-surveys-request@stolaf.edu
Kenji and Kathleen Kitao have good descriptions
of these on the page Student
Lists: Useful Lists for Teaching/Learning
English and Japanese, at
http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/list/lis-stud.htm
Mailing lists are a very useful resource for teachers,
and I strongly recommend
subscribing to one. There is a great amount
of information exchange, and many ideas for
classroom activities are suggested. As
well, there are queries and advice on specific
problems. There are also mailing lists
regarding the use of technology in the classroom,
which pertains not only to activities but also
to using the technology, particularly
software. For mailing list descriptions
and addresses, see Appendix
A.
Usenet is also a discussion group, but differs
from mailing lists in three key ways.
First, newsreader software is necessary in order
to access newsgroups. NN and TIN are
two common text-based programs for UNIX systems.
Newsgroups may also be read
through graphical web browsers such as Netscape
or Internet Explorer. Other programs
are also available, such as News Xpress.
Second, Usenet discussions are organized by
topic. There is the initial inquiry or
comment, then all responses follow that initial
posting in a chronological order, linked together.
This is referred to as a thread. Third,
the newsgroups to which you may subscribe depends
upon which ones are accessible
through your server.
It is possible to add a newsgroup; however, the
manner in which this is done
depends upon your news administrator. In
short, you must send a request to add a
newsgroup, stating its name and purpose.
Some administrators accept all requests; others
do not (Barr, 1995). It may be worth looking
into because, as far as I know, there are no
newsgroups for ESL students.
There is a site that has a large amount of information
regarding newsgroups. I
would suggest visiting it, and reading some of
the other pages linked to it. You can read
general information on Usenet, how to post to
Usenet, information on creating
newsgroups, and FAQs. The URL is
http://www.hypernews.org/HyperNews/get/usenet.html
To search for a newsgroup, two good places to
start are Tile.Net
(http://tile.net/news/),
Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/Usenet/),
or
Liszt (http://www.liszt.com/)
As I mentioned, I am not aware of any newsgroups in
existence for only ESL students, but they may
find another topic of interest. There are
some newsgroups for teachers, though (see Appendix
B).
2.12 Student’s
Discussion Group. (All levels)
Investigate the possibility of adding a newsgroup
to your server. If it is possible, some
discussion ideas are:
2.14 Motivational.
(All levels)
It may be motivating to get students to read
and use discussions groups (and e-mail) by
posting possible exam questions. The students
must answer and discuss them.
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