Interactions and miscommunication in the Swiss vocational education context
Researching vocational learning from a linguistic perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v7i1.27Keywords:
APPRENTICESHIP, TRANSITION, INTERACTION, DISCOURSE, WORKPLACE LEARNING, IDENTITYAbstract
This paper identifies and discusses various challenges met by apprentices when joining the workplace at the very beginning of their training programme. These challenges have become of interest to policy makers and vocational researchers in a context where transitions from school to work are often seen as problematic experiences with growing numbers of young people dropping out of apprenticeship programmes. In a case study drawn from empirical data referring to the Swiss vocational education system, difficulties in sharing meaning at various levels and in (re)negotiating participation at work are described as typical patterns of interactions between apprentices and expert coworkers who train them. These challenges, it is proposed, are not external to language use, but are deeply mediated by discourse practices, including a variety of semiotic resources. From that standpoint, concepts and methods developed in the field of applied linguistics can be seen as relevant tools for illuminating the complexities associated with workplace learning. The paper explores possible continuities and complementarities between vocational education research and discourse studies and argues for an increased research effort in this field of applied linguistics.
References
Billett, S. (2001) Learning in the Workplace: Strategies for Effective Practice. Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin.
Brown, P. and Levinson, S. (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Candlin, C. N. (ed.) (2002) Research and Practice in Professional Discourse. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press.
Collin, K. and Valleala U. M. (2005) Interaction among employees: how does learning take place in the social communities of the workplace and how might such learning be supervised? Journal of Education and Work 18 (4): 401?420. doi:10.1080/13639080500327873
Dubs, R. (2006) An Appraisal of the Swiss Vocational Education and Training System. Bern: HEP Verlag.
Erickson, F. (2004) Talk and Social Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge Polity Press.
Filliettaz, de Saint-Georges, I. and Duc, B. (2008) ‘Vos mains sont intelligentes!’: Interactions en formation professionnelle initiale. Université de Genève: Cahiers de la Section des Sciences de l’Education, 117.
Goffman, E. (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday.
Goffman, E. (1974) Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. New York: Harper and Row.
Gonon, Ph. (2005) Challenges in the Swiss vocational education and training system. bwp@, 7.
Goodwin, C. (2000) Action and embodiment within situated human interaction. Journal of Pragmatics 32 (10): 1489?1522. doi:10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00096-X
Gumperz, J. (1982) Discourse Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511611834
Holmes, J. and Stubbe, M. (2003) Power and Politeness in the Workplace. London: Longman
Kress, G., Charalampos, T., Ogborn, J. and Jewitt, C. (2001) Multimodal Teaching and Learning: The Rhetorics of the Science Classroom. London: Continuum.
Lamamra, N. and Masdonati, J. (2009) Arrêter une formation professionnelle: Mots et maux d’apprenti-e-s. Lausanne: Antipodes.
Lave, J. (1988) Cognition in Practice: Mind, Mathematics, and Culture in Everyday Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511609268
Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Levine, Ph. and Scollon, R. (eds) (2004) Discourse and Technology: Multimodal Discourse Analysis. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Mondada, L. (2006) Interactions en situations professionnelles et institutionnelles: De l’analyse détaillée aux retombées pratiques. Revue française de linguistique appliquée XI (2): 5?16.
Norris, S. (2004) Analyzing Multimodal Interaction: A Methodological Framework. London: Routledge.
Rex, L., Steadman, S. C. and Graciano, M. K. (2006) Researching the complexity of classroom interaction. In J. L. Green, G. Camilli and P. B. Elmore (eds) Handbook of Complementary Methods in Education Research, 727?771. London: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. and Jefferson, G. (1978) A simplest systematics of the organization of turn taking for conversation. In J. Schenkein (ed.) Studies in the Organization of Conversational Interaction, 7?55. New York: Academic Press.
Sarangi, S. and Candlin, C. (eds.) (2003) Introduction: Trading between reflexivity and relevance: new challenges for applied linguistics. Applied Linguistics 24 (3): 271?285. doi:10.1093/applin/24.3.271
Sarangi, S. and Roberts, C. (eds) (1999) Talk, Work and Institutional Order. Discourse in Medical, Mediation and Management Settings. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Schnurr, S., Marra, M. and Holmes, J. (2007) Being (im)polite in New Zealand workplaces: M?ori and P?keh? leaders. Journal of Pragmatics 39 (4): 712?729. doi:10.1016/j. pragma.2006.11.016
Stalder, B. E. and Nägele, C. (2011) Vocational education and training in Switzerland: Organisation, development and challenges for the future. In M. M. Bergman, S. HupkaBrunner, A. Keller, T. Meyer and B. E. Stalder (eds) Youth Transitions in Switzerland: Results from the TREE Panel Study, 18–39. Zürich: Seismo.
Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.