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The study of online learning, whether aimed at understanding this form of situated human learning, at evaluating relevant pedagogical scenarios and settings or at improving technological environments, requires the availability of interaction data from all participants in the learning situations. However, usually data are either inaccessible, or of limited access to those who were not involved in the original project. Moreover data are fragmented, therefore decontextualized with respect to the original teaching/learning settings. Sometimes they are buried in a proprietary format within the technological environment. The consequence is that research lacks a scientific basis. In the literature comparisons are often attempted between objects that are ill-defined and may in fact be different. The processes of scientific enquiry, such as re-analyzing, replicating, verifying, refuting or extending the original findings, are therefore disabled. To address this anomaly, we suggest to create and disseminate a new type of corpus, a contextualized learner corpus, entitled "LEarning and TEaching Corpus" (Letec). Such corpora include not only the data that correspond to output of learner activity in online courses, but also their context. Sharing Letec corpora within the research community implies that: (1) corpora are formatted and structured according to a new model which is compatible with existing standards for corpora and for learning design specifications; (2) corpora are placed on a server offering cross-platform compatibility and free access; (3) an ethics policy is formulated as well as copyright-licences. This paper presents the answers brought by our Mulce project from a theoretical and methodological standpoint. We give examples extracted from two learning and teaching corpora (Simuligne and Copéas). We show how data structured accordingly to the Mulce format can be transformed and processed by analysis tools available in different research communities. The article sheds light on the potential of such tools for the study of polyfocalisation and multimodal writing. It concludes with the scientific benefits researchers may expect at an institutional level when collecting and structuring data.

This article belongs to two research areas, distance education and the development of intercultural competence in online multicultural group exchanges. Recent publications proved the interest raised by such issues, and also the difficulties encountered. O'Dowd and Ritter found 10 criteria related to these difficulties. We discuss them and extract a particularly relevant one, the pedagogical scenario, which we study here. The Tridem06 experiment is described with its scenario designed by a multi-institutional team and based on Byram's model of intercultural competence. When analysing the multimodal contents of the interactions, extracted from synchronous and asynchronous environments used by participants, we establish a correspondence with the five savoirs of the intercultural competence model. We finally approach a discussion about the tutor's responsibility and awareness in multicultural group exchanges with an example of failed learning.

The present article deals with the strategies of a foreign language learner in an on-line learning setting notably based on an audio-synchronous computer-mediated-communication environment. In the English for Specific Purposes training courses at stake, two groups of learners have been working on collaborative tasks. These two groups have been established according to an estimation of the learners' level in the target language. Our case study concerns one learner of the A1-A2 level-group, within which, however, the levels are still heterogeneous. This adult learner who has decided to resume university training has not practiced the L2 for many years.In a first theoretical part, we discuss the links between strategies and consciousness, and the classifications that distinguish the grouping of the learning strategies from the grouping of the use strategies. We go further into our categorization of strategies with the metacognitive, cognitive, affective and social types of strategies. In a second part of the article we present an original research methodology based on a questionnaire, a semi-directed interview, a critical-event-recall interview and the transcripts of the multimodal interactions. We analyze examples of strategy occurrences through excerpts of these crossed-data, with on the one hand the strategies mentioned for the preparation phase and on the other hand those that occurred in comprehension and production situations. A table summarizes and illustrates the variety of the strategies implemented by this learner. It allows us to further discuss our criteria of distinction between the two groupings of strategies, as well as the particular place of social strategies within the training arrangement at stake. We open up some perspectives about the so debated question of the teaching of strategies, notably in relation to social strategies and to those appealing to the characteristics of the technological environment, especially its multimodality.

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.

Dans cet article nous tentons de cerner la nature et les centres d´intérêt du lectorat de la revue ALSIC, au cours des 21 premiers mois de son existence, de juin 1998 à février 2000. Nous présentons d´abord les sources d´information sur lesquelles est construite cette étude. Nous examinons les nombres d´accès mensuels sur notre site. Nous détaillons ensuite certaines caractéristiques de notre lectorat : répartition géographique, activités principales, langues objets d´attention. Enfin, nous décrivons les consultations des rubriques et de certains de nos articles.

Éditorial du numéro 1, volume 3 de la revue Alsic, numéro spécial suite à la conférence EUROCALL'99, qui s'est déroulée à Besançon, en septembre 1999. Ce numéro a été initialement publié sous un autre format, voir document attaché.

Éditorial du numéro 2, volume 1 de la revue Alsic, initialement publié sous un autre format, voir document attaché.

Éditorial du numéro 1, volume 1 de la revue Alsic, initialement publié sous un autre format, voir document attaché.