This case study paves the way for a research and development project aiming to design a desktop videoconferencing platform specifically dedicated to synchronous language teaching. It starts by defining a model of language pedagogy adapted to distance and taking into account the affordances of videoconferencing for language teaching. It then proceeds to analyze the activity of novice teachers confronted with the management of synchronous online teaching. To model their pedagogical and communicational activity, two teaching sessions were captured and analyzed with a special focus on the difficulties encountered by the participants in situation and the strategies they deployed. The participants' comments were also elicited, thanks to a focus group session. This case study results in the presentation of three functionalities designed to assist teachers to plan the online session, to communicate more effectively, and to keep track of some of their learners' production for ulterior feedback. (Contains 2 tables, 2 figures, and 2 notes.)