This paper reports the intelligibility difficulties experienced by students of English for academic purposes at a university in Sweden while taking part in synchronous net-based seminars. Connectivity limitations, microphone and headphone problems, background noise and other factors in combination with limited skill in the perception of English speech make it difficult for these students to process speech directed to them. In addition, the speech the students are trying to process may be produced by nonnative speakers of English, either fellow students or teachers. A comparison of simultaneous communication in several of the modes available in the virtual seminar environment showed that students make use of a number of strategies to partly compensate for their failure to optimally perceive and produce speech.