| Summary: | The current development of audio-synchronous environments challenges designers and tutors in distant language learning but also researchers in discourse analysis. It becomes indeed crucial to understand how the communication in pedagogical purpose is organized in this type of environment. This article approaches this still recent field in two ways: a methodological one and an analytical one. We first provide a methodological framework for the analysis of multimodal conversations starting from the concepts of media, mode and modality and, on the other hand, we define the components of an audio-synchronous platform. In the analytical part, we report the first quantitative outcomes from the Copéas experimentation about the combined use of the "audio" and "chat" modalities and its impact on the participation of the learners. Based on transcribed sequences, the analysis indicates how the pedagogical communication is organized when various modes (verbal and non verbal) join to structure and support conversations in L2. The analysis shows that the free choice of the modes and modalities supports verbal production. In these conversations, sometimes the speech mode takes a large and dominant place, but sometimes it is completely absent from the interactions in favour of text, graphic and iconic modes. Finally, we widen the field of the description of multimodal speech by considering the spatial mode as well, which is essential when taking into account the context in which each transaction must be located.
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