ABSTRACT Distance learning, face-to-face learning, mediated communication, virtual classrooms, and e-tasks, are all terms that have recently been at the heart of the preoccupations of practitioners and the research community in Education Sciences and Didactics. But what exactly is it about? And what does it have to do with language teaching and learning? In what forms is it relevant to use these Internet-based devices? What changes does this imply for the teacher and what is his/her role from now on? These are some of the questions that this article will attempt to answer. The focus is on language learning in an e-learning teaching device and the conditions that must be met for this mode of learning to be effective.