Adopting a sociopragmatic and interactional perspective, the paper proposes to investigate how apprentices engage in questioning practices and how trainers respond to these questions. A detailed empirical analysis of audio/video data collected in the context of Swiss training companies establishes that answers provided by trainers in response to questions do not constitute the dominant form of questioning work observed. Alternative interactional patterns that stress the tensions connected with questioning in the workplace context and the complexity of the social practices associated with workplace learning are identified and described. These findings illuminate the challenges faced by apprentices when joining the workplace and underscore the importance of a sociopragmatic perspective in addressing social issues related to initial vocational education. © 2011 John Benjamins Publishing Company.
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