Language Learning Through the Internet: Nine Years of Experience

Abstract

“Lernu!” (www.lernu.net) is a multilingual web-based free-of-charge project for promoting and teaching Esperanto. Since 2002, more than 10 million visitors and 100,000 registered users have profited from the site’s 14 proposed courses and the accompanying exercises, games, dictionaries and grammatical overviews. There is also an on-line examination system and a multimedia library with books, music, voice-narrated stories and videos. The on-line user community is supported by built-in communication services such as instant messenger, discussion forums and news. An international network of volunteers provides human feedback and takes care of the website’s 37 language versions, by means of a dedicated translation software. Experience acquired with “lernu!” has given rise to E@I, an NGO running intercultural projects related to language learning and internet technologies.