Welcome to the second newsletter.
First of all let me wish everyone
EID MUBARAK
MERRY XMAS
HAPPY NEW YEAR

Secondly, a big thank you to all of you for your support on this site. There are now 84 of you who have given me direct feedback on the site and Version 2 (by next March hopefully) aims to incorporate all of your suggestions. It will include pages on Testing, Course & Syllabus Design, Materials Production & Research.
Until then the present version will be continually updated. At the time of writing there are now over 65 pages and touching a hundred links to some of the most useful websites out there. Thanks to all of you for your links and reviews. A special thanks goes to Mary-Lynn Hughes for all her suggestions for the lexis page which has seen some excellent additions. Check it out.
I am also working on the database behind the website, so that Version 2 will include entry forms for us to start on the Contacts Page. This will hopefully allow the site to become a catalyst for you all to link up on areas of interest and thereby create a collaborative network which I believe is one of the most powerful features of this web medium.
My PhD has been narrowed down to researching the support such a site gives to those of you studying for the Aston MSc in TESOL/TESP, but please do not let this stop anyone else giving me your feedback.
I have recently been involved in two conferences with online features. First, the ELToc conference which was, unfortunately, technologically disappointing though fascinating in its content. It was technologically disappointing because the powerpoint slide shows were massive and could not be easily downloaded and there are as yet no papers from the conference available. Nevertheless, you can go into the site and listen to the talks given - well worth it. If you have a problem contact me and I'll see if I can help.The second conference was the MLI Teacher-to-Teacher conference here in Abu Dhabi which had an excellent plenary session given by Deborah Healy via video-web link.

Publisher links will be going up onto the site over the next couple of months, so that you should be able to order directly on the web any book that is referenced on these pages. Here's hoping.
The New Year promises lots to look forwad to with several excellent conferences on the horizon. Check out their sites and see if you can't get to at least one of them. Bilkent 2002 should be as good as the last six conferences that the University has hosted and the list of speakers is very interesting. TESOLArabia2002 has a total of nine invited speakers and presentations by teachers from over twenty-five countries. The day after that closes in Abu Dhabi, the annual IATEFL conference opens in York. And finally the TESOL2002 convention follows on from the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in April.
Check out Danyal Freeman's AstonTaiwanCentre page - it has a lot of relevant links for any of you doing the Aston Masters. And thanks for your feedback on this site Danyal.
Let me just finish by taking you through the main changes to the site in case you haven't been in for the last month or so. The main addition has been to the Study Page. The first unit of every module on the Aston MS in TESOL/TESP is on that page. I must thank all of those at the Aston LSU for their support and permission to put up these pages - especially as no other institute responded.
The Practical pages have seen ten new links added on the lesson plans and links pages. Check them out - there are some excellent teaching sites there.
The Learning Pages have also seen a dozen new links added with a good number of them on the Technology page. Since this site was launched there has been a boom in the availability of online journals and the Technology Page links into three of the most fascinating additions that I have found.
The Language Pages have also expanded with new papers and links added to the Grammar, Lexis and Skills pages. The best in online dictionaries can now be found on the Lexis Page along with a paper I wrote a couple of years back reviewing four dictionaries and how they differ in their compilation.
So that's it for now. Have a great festive season and I'm looking forward to hearing from you soon.
Phil.