Action Planning and Work Procedures: Language Issues for Vocational Training

This article explores some of the contributions of programming discourse to the study of professionalization processes. First, it proposes a theoretical clarification, aiming at a better understanding of the concept of programming discourse and the notional ingredients that are combined in it. It is followed by an empirical study, in which this conceptual framework is used to describe the processes of programming action in the field of vocational training for early childhood educators. An analysis of oral interactive data shows how a trainee's activity is prepared and programmed by the tutor who supervises her internship; it then shows how the trainee appropriates these instructions to program educational activities for children.