Language Teaching and the Internet Language Teaching and the Internet Mailing Lists for Students Internet email allows offers a valuable opportunity to take your students outside of their classroom and let them communicate with others of similar interests all over the world. There are several mailing lists set up specifically for students of English and many others set up for different interest groups. These mailing lists can help the student make new friends, and can inspire them to continue using email. If you are conversant with the commands and procedures, you'll find it much easier to help your students when they run into problems. As you can well imagine, this often creates many more problems than it solves and leaves both teacher and student frustrated and wondering what all the fuss was about.
Most lists send a helpful message out when a student subscribes.
You'll most likely want to help your class print out or otherwise save these messages, as they will prove helpful later on. You may want to take some time in class to discuss the welcome message, and to make sure that your students understand them. A brief introduction to Netiquette is also included with these messages, and can provide more fodder for class discussion. Using General Interest Mailing Lists for Students For more advanced students, and for materials to use in class, there are literally thousands of Listserv mailing lists on thousands of topics. By sending a message to any Listserv address with the words 'list global,' you can receive a file which contains a list of all current lists along with brief descriptions.