Kevin Ryan (Tokyo)

Computers & Communication

Using English to Communicate with Native English Speakers

Discussion Groups

ListServs and Discussion Groups

Joining a group is a wonderful way to learn things, find new people and communicate with lots of English-speaking people.

A LISTSERV is a computer that acts as a central place to store messages. Everyone on the list of members receives all the email sent to the group. A Discussion Group is similar, but usually uses a browser to communicate. A good example of a bad discussion group in Japanese is Channel2.

Week 5: Discussion Groups

We will start with our own group, using our Moodle software. You should receive an email about this group from me. In it are instructions how to use the group. Please remember, every message you send to the group gets copied almost 100 times and sent to each member. Make your messages SHORT, CLEAR and INTERESTING. Interesting means that you bring something NEW to the discussion. Something most other people DON"T KNOW. This can be an interesting fact or your opinion, if it is unusual.

Introduce yourself by starting a topic about something you believe in (something that can't be proved). Examples:

Did you know that half of the people in the United States still believe in Creationism? They think that God created the Earth about 10,000 years ago. This is unbelievable for me. I have read many books about Charles Darwin and his ideas have been proven again and again by scientific evidence from many sources. They have to be the truth. But many people still believe in what the Bible says, about God creating everything in one week. Don't they realize that this is just a story to explain a difficult idea in a simple way? You can't believe everything in the Bible.

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I almost got killed one day 20 years ago, for taking pictures. I was watching a demonstration of workers against the government. This was in Barcelona Spain, and the group of demonstrators was anarchist, who don't believe in any government control. They would push parked cars into the busy streets to block traffic. The police would chase them away and push back the cars. But the demonstrators would come back and do it again. The third time police started shooting. I was watching from my house, on the third floor. The police shot at me when they saw I was taking pictures. I escaped,, but my friend got hit. He almost died. Police have to be careful with the power that they have.

Note: This year (75) University of Tokyo students AND (25) Showa Women's University students will be participating in this discussion. Remember this when you are writing your messages (Know your audience is the first rule of communication).

Week 5 Homework: Reply to a message in one of the groups. Either disagree, or add more information to the topic. Only agreeing is not enough.

Week 6: SL-Lists

Student Lists, or SL-Lists were developed by a colleague, Tom Robb, from Kyoto Sangyo Univeristy. He works with another professor at LaTrobe University in Australia.

They use Moodle, just lke I do. These discussions are like mine, but include language students from all over the world. The English is simple, but the topics are not.

In class, you need to register for SL-Lists just like you did for my class. Remember to write down your UserName and Password. Then join a class. Mr. Ryan can tell you the password (enrolment key) for each class when you want to join. Then read many messages in that discussion group.

Week 6 Homework: You should post a new topic or a comment about an ongoing topic. Remember to bring new information to the discussion. You should either disagree and give your reasons, agree and give new information, or ask a specific question.

Week 7: Yahoo Discussion Groups

In class, we will look for a group for you to participate in. Some groups are especially for language learners, others are for native speakers of English.

TO FIND a Discussion Group go to Yahoo Groups. Search the Topics and find a topic of interest to you. Read many messages in that group. Become a member in that group.

Week 7 Homework: Read the discussion during the week. Then post a message in that group. You can do one of three things:

Ask a Question
Give more information on the subject
Disagree and state your point

Week 8: NetNews (UseNet) News Groups

All the other types of communications we have studied before have been of a PUSH type. If you signed up for a listserv, all the messages came without your asking, they were PUSHED at you. With NetNews or UseNet, you have to PULL the information from each message. That is why looking at the SUBJECT of each message is so important.

UseNet Net News is a good place to ask questions. But you have to be careful. There are many people that read and post to the news groups. They are not controlled in any way, so many people write things that are off topic. This is called NOISE. If the message is on topic, it is called SIGNAL. In communication theory, the ratio of Signal to Noise is one way to evaluate a newsgroup.

You have to learn to read quickly, and go on to the next message if that one is not interesting. If you do post to a newsgroup (send a message), then people all over the world can read it.

Google has the best place to find the newsGroup that is most interesting for you. There are more than 20,000 newsGroups, each with a different topic. They are broken down into different areas, and each has a prefix (example: Recreation = rec.). Be careful, you should read many messages before you post one. Many people read these groups, and many people like to complain.

History and Differences: Google bought NetNews about 5 years ago. Before that it was the first discussion group on the Internet, even before the WWW. It was text-only, and still is. No memberships and very few rules. Many groups are about subjects like sex or stealing movies, but they have lots of other groups where you can ask a question and get an answer quickly. That is the best feature.

Go to Google "Groups" (Usenet News). Find a topic similar to your Yahoo Groups topic. Read many messages in that topic. Go to the USEFUL LINKS below for some help in how to read Google Groups.

Some useful links

On Reading Net News
How to read UseNet
A good page on reading UseNet for English Learners

Week 8 Homework: Post a message to a NewsGroup. See if you get any responses.

Report 2 Now due: You can begin your report on Discussion Groups now. Go to the assignment HERE to prepare your report. You should do this report AFTER you finish the Email/Keypal Report and the BLOG messages. You should finish this report by June 28. Next week we will go on to SYNCHRONOUS communication.