Berger, T., & Borgmann, L. (2000, November 28-December 1). Strategies for participation of learners in virtual learning communities. In T. Cherkasky, J. Greenbaum, P. Mambrey, & J. K. Pors (Eds.), PDC 2000: Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference (pp. 237-241). (edit)

Describes a work in progress of building a pan-Europe virtual learning community over the Internet. While relative computer and Internet literacy was an issue, the instructors motivated student learning in these areas through the introduction of intra-student competition that required technical knowledge of Internet media. While English was the linga franca of the projects, students had varying proficiencies in English. Preformulated phrases in chat rooms, provision of task-specific vocabulary, online translation tools, and online (translation) dictionaries help bridge the gap.