In the first half of the twentieth century, notions such as linguistic structures and students' linguistic capacity were the traditional elements of any language teaching. These notions are yielding their place to the functional use of language and how language is being shaped by the different communicative situations. This communicative approach of teaching a foreign language has led the redefinition of learning objectives and general principles of the teaching act. The emphasis is on students' communicative ability, therefore communication plays a key role in teaching Language-Civilisation. In the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR), we find the key notion of speech acts. The interest in this project is the relationship between traditional speech acts and simulated situations in Virtual Worlds. Furthermore, there is an interest in finding out if it is possible to develop learner's language skills by teaching and using speech acts in these environments. In the above context, in this paper we first illustrate current needs in teaching and learning second languages, then we discuss the design of a Virtual world and finally its implementation for teaching speech acts of French language in higher education. [For full proceedings, see ED565044.]