| Summary: | This article studies the impact of multimodality and synchronicity on an online teaching/learning exchange between dyads of Masters degree students in teaching French as a foreign language at the University of Lyon 2 and dyads of intermediate-level French students at the University of California, Berkeley during the 2006-07 academic year. The desktop videoconferencing platform allowed face-to-face audiovisual communication as well as synchronous written chat. Based on observational and interview data, the study explores how participants use speech, writing, and visual contact online, the affective effects of these uses, and the types of competences developed as a consequence. Analysis of the two corpora (French and American) shows a progressive adaptation to the particularities of desktop videoconferencing and the development of specific competencies: among the American learners of French, greater confidence and ease in taking the floor; among the French teachers-in-training, development of a professional online persona and flexibility in their pedagogical stance and strategies.
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