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International audience; In this study we analyzed the verbal and gestural behavior of 6-year-old French children during free dialogue explanation. We expected that children would alter their gestures according to content explained and interlocutor visibility. Thirty children explained two games to a peer: fifteen could not see their interlocutor whereas fifteen could. Results showed that the mean number of clauses per explanation of a child speaker interacting with a child addressee did not significantly change according to content explained or the visibility of the addressee. However, the mean number of gestures per clause is higher for a child speaker interacting with a child addressee both when explaining the spatial game and when face-to-face. Finally, children explaining how to play a spatial game produced more representational gestures and made more interactive gestures when the addressee was visible. These results are discussed in relation to previous studies on children’s language production and acquisition.

Starting from the notion of input as it is used in second language acquisition research, this study explores the conditions and forms of input processing specific to the foreign language class. The ecological analysis of a filmed corpus of two English classes at beginner and intermediate level focuses particularly on the articulation between different verbal and non verbal components of pedagogical interactions. The study highlights the multifunctional nature of these multimodal interactions and the synergy that emerges from their functioning. It also shows how the nature of non verbal behaviour and its role in structuring linguistic data depends on conditions that were specific to the language class and varies according to the level and content of learning. Within a sociocognitive perspective, the study aims to contribute to the modelisation of learning processes in the foreign language class.