Hello all! Since the Internet is a vast forum for communicating with others around the world, it can provide great opportunities for language learners. There have been many cyberspaces created for ESL students and teachers in particular and those are the sites I am featuring today. Dave's ESL Cafe is one site that is quite interactive. This site was created by Dave Sperling specifically for ESL students to use in interactions; it also has links to other good sites for teachers and students. Along with several email forums and mailing lists you can join, Dave's ESL cafe has many "graffiti walls" -- places you can write and see your entry added immediately to the page and also "discussion boards" where you can read and add-to running conversations about such things as current events, holidays, food, etc. These forums are great especially because students can join them even if they don't have their own email accounts.

And here are three other discussion forums you can join. The first two are mailing lists that you sign up via email. The third is a "MOO":

• ESL Chat Lists: send a blank e-mail to announce-sl@latrobe.edu.au to obtain information automatically on bulletin boards for students set up by Lloyd Holliday; or find out about class-to-class exchanges by e-mailing to Tom Robb at trobb@cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp, giving the number of your students, the duration of the term, and your e-mail address. 
• TESL-L: e-mail to listserv@cunyvm.cuny.edu with the message SUB TESL-L YRFIRSTNAME YRLASTNAME to receive information automatically about subscribing to this list for teachers. Sublists are organized by teaching interests and levels.
• schMOOze U has directions for accessing the Telnet site of this virtual university for English learners designed by Julie Falsetti. Teachers may reserve classrooms, and students may claim their own dormitory rooms. Has access to an online grammar checker and dictionary.

And here are some writing resources:

• Wings Electronic Magazine is another site where ESL students can read and submit writing. This site is more geared to university aged students.
• PIZZAZ! "People Interested in Zippy and ZAny Zcribbling" is an online resource since 1995 for Scribblers and Teachers of English as a Second Language.

And below are several other sites that may be of interest. These came from an article posted on the TESOL website titled Technology in the Classroom: Practice and Promise in the 21st Century.

• ESLoop: created by Susan Gaer, presents an index to sites for language learners, especially student-produced Web pages and projects, and exchange opportunities. There's a whole bunch of stuff here!
• OTAN: the Outreach and Technical Assistance Network for literacy has a national grant to provide technology services to teachers. Their site includes links to student projects, to a CNN education site with interactive lessons for English learners based on the news in special English, and to thousands of lessons plans for adult literacy and vocational education.
• AskERIC: provides access to ERIC-CAL statistics and archives of periodicals and unpublished papers on all aspects of education. Assistance is available for researching specific topics.
• CELIA: is an archive of language teaching freeware, shareware, and publishers' demos that may be downloaded for free. The archive at La Trobe University in Australia is organized by human language and hardware type. The English language contents are available on a CD-ROM, TESOL/CELIA '96, from TESOL, Alexandria, VA.