Activities
Events and Publications
Events
Meetings, conferences, and other activities
On this page, we inform you about relevant (upcoming and past) events that are either directly associated with the project “Questioning Sequences in Coaching”, with one of the project’s teams, or with single project members.
Podcast
The Coaching Psychology Pod by
Dr. Natalie Lancer on Apple Podcasts on
January 5, 2023, which will be released shortly.
Conference
Manuals
and only missing a finishing touch. Publication on our website is planned for the second quarter.
Past events
Project kick-off meeting
The official project kick-off meeting of “Questioning Sequences in Coaching” took place online on March 1, 2021. For more information, see our news article.
First project meeting
After the official kick-off, the first regular QueSCo project meeting took place on May 27, 2021. For more information, see our news article.
Guest lecture on “online health coaching”
On June 18, 2021, as a part of the initiative Public Health at the University of Klagenfurt, Elke Berninger-Schäfer (Karlsruher Institut) gave a guest lecture on “online health coaching”. You can find a detailed report on the lecture here.
Coaching controversy
On June 23, 2021, Eva-Maria Graf took part in an online discussion on the topic “What does academic research really contribute to the professionalization of coaching!?” The event was organized and chaired by Robert Wegener (FHNW) For more information, see our news article.
17th International Pragmatics Conference
On July 2, 2021, as part of the panel “Applied Linguistics in the Professions: The Value of Transdisciplinary in a Changing World”, Frédérick Dionne gave a talk on “Questioning Practices in Executive Coaching: A Discussion of How to Integrate Practical and Scholarly Perspectives.”
Online talk on gender in coaching
In July 2021, Eva-Maria Graf gave an online talk organized by the Gesellschaft für Deutsche Sprache in Greifswald. The talk dealt with the topic “The discursive (re)construction of gender in executive coaching: An Applied Linguistic analysis of its forms and functions.”
AILA Conference 2021
On August 17, Eva-Maria Graf and Frédérick Dionne gave a talk on “Transdisciplinarity and Executive Coaching? An Example of Researching Questioning Practices” at the World Congress of Applied Linguistics 2021. Their conbribution was part of the panel on “Applied Linguistics in the Professions: The Value of Transdisciplinarity in a Changing World”.
QueSCo Team Meeting in Mannheim
Between August 15 and 17, the first meeting of the “Questioning Sequences in Coaching” teams from Austria, Germany and Switzerland took place at the Leibniz-Institute for the German Language in Mannheim. For the first time, the team members could work together productively and intensively in a face-to-face setting. You can read up on our first entire team meeting here.
Winter School in Innsbruck
On November 13, Frédérick Dionne gave a presentation on agenda-thematizing questions in Coaching in the context of the 6th Winter School organized by the University of Innsbruck focusing on the potentials of Applied Linguistics.
67th Meeting of the “Arbeitskreis Angewandte Gesprächsforschung” in Fulda
On November 12, Melanie Fleischhacker also gave a presentation on the role of questions in negotiatinig the agenda in coaching at the 67th meeting of the “Arbeitskreis Angewandte Gesprächsforschung”. Additionally, she presented first sequential analyses of agenda-thematizing questions in coaching.
Keynote Speech at the “Coaching meets Research” Congress 2021
On November 19, 2021, Eva-Maria Graf gave a keynote speech at the congress “Coaching meets Research … Coaching Essentials 1980-2050”. In her presentation “Zu Formen und Wirksamkeit des Coaching-Gesprächs – Fragen Sie Ihre Linguistin” (Regarding forms and effectiveness of the coaching conversation – Consult your linguist), she gave an overview of existing coaching process research, then focused on linguistic coaching process research and, finally, presented the project “Questioning Sequences in Coaching” and first insights.
Team Linguistics and QueSCo Meetings
From November 15 to 18, 2021, the linguists Thomas Spranz-Fogasy, Eva-Maria Graf, Frédérick Dionne and Melanie Fleischhacker met at the IDS in Mannheim to intensively work on the category system for (coaching-specific) question types. For more information, click here. Also, the entire QueSCo team got together for a three-day online meeting, between November 27-29. The interdisciplinary workflow and collaboration as well as the joint development of a coding manual were at the centre of this meeting.
Keynote
On January 20, 2022, Eva-Maria Graf gave a keynote speech on lingustic coaching research at the 18th “Coaching and Mentoring Conference” organised annually by the Oxford Brookes University (London). Further information on the conference can be found here.
1st New Year’s Meeting
On January 21, 2022, the entire QueSCo team got together for the first time in the new year to finalise the coding scheme for question types and to start working on a system for questioning sequences. Further info on the coding scheme can be found here.
QueSCo meeting
From April 6 to 9, 2022, the second personal meeting of our project team was hosted by Team Klagenfurt and took place at the University of Klagenfurt. Find more information on the meeting in our blog post.
Symposium
In the framework of the Symposium “Konstruktiv, wertschätzend, digital – Beraten in der Hochschullehre” from May 9 to 13, 2022, our QueSCo teammembers held different workshops and keynotes. Further information on the symposium and the contents of our teammembers’ contributions can be found in the corresponding blog post.
68. Treffen des Arbeitskreises Angewandte Gesprächsforschung (AAG)
From May 13 to 14, 2022, Thomas Spranz-Fogasy took part in the 68th meeting of the “Arbeitskreis Angewandte Gesprächsforschung (AAG)” at the Heidelberg University of Education and gave a lecture on basic and applied research.
FAF conference
As part of the FAF conference of the DBVC on July 11, 2022, Eva-Maria Graf and Hansjörg Künzli introduced our project. You can find more on this talk here.
Dietz Training: Lecture
In the course of the Dietz Training Alumni Meeting 2022, Eva-Maria Graf will be giving a lecture on “Questions in Coaching – Insights into what we and our clients really do” on July 24, 2022 at 9.15 a.m. You can find more on Dietz Training here.
BAAL 2022
This year’s BAAL (British Association of Applied Linguistics) conference took place at the Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, from September 1 to 3, 2022. More information on the conference can be found here or on their website.
ICCAP 2022
The International Conference on Conversation Analysis and Psychotherapy (ICCAP) 2022 took place from September 8 to 10, 2022, in Gent, Belgium. To find out more about the conference, visit their web presence or click here.
ALAPP 2022
At this year’s ALAPP conference, which took place from September 15-17 in Jyväskylä, Finland, team QueSCo was represented by two teams with two talks. More information on that can be found here.
QueSCo meeting Zurich
From September 25 to 28, 2022, our third personal meeting of our project team was hosted by Team Switzerland, which invited us for the project meeting at the ZHAW in Zurich.
Guest lecture
On October 13, 2022, Peter Muntigl from the University of Gent is giving a guest lecture about empathic practices in psychotherapy at the University of Klagenfurt. Find more information on the guest lecture here.
Online conference
The virtual conference “Digital Meeting for Conversation Analysis” took place from October 10 to November 4, 2022. More information on the conference can be found on their website.
Publications
Planned publications

Calasso, Lara, Burtscher, Michael, & Künzli, Hansjörg (under review). What are executive coaches actually doing and when are they doing it? A systematic review of coaching behavior. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. |
Dionne, Frédérick, Fleischhacker, Melanie, Muntigl, Peter, & Graf, Eva-Maria (in preparation). Delaying and Resisting – Interactional Problems in Request for Information Sequences in Business Coaching. Topical Collection Frontiers in Psychology “Innovative Studies in Organized Helping: Transforming Relations, Emotions and Referents through Sequentially Structured Practices”. |
Fleischhacker, Melanie, Dionne, Frédérick, & Graf, Eva-Maria (in preparation). Agenda-Thematizing Questions in (Business) Coaching – Negotiating Epistemic and Deontic Territories. Topical Collection Frontiers in Psychology “Innovative Studies in Organized Helping: Transforming Relations, Emotions and Referents through Sequentially Structured Practices”. Journal of Pragmatics/Topical Collection Frontiers. |
Fleischhacker, Melanie, & Graf, Eva-Maria (under revision). Why Gaining Linguistic Insights into the Coaching Process Matters – A Systematic Scoping Review of Linguistic Coaching Process Research. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice. |
Fleischhacker, Melanie, & Graf, Eva-Maria (under review). Looking into the “Black Box” of Coaching – A Focus on Conversation Analysis and Linguistic Change-Process Research. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice. |
Graf, Eva-Maria, Dionne, Frédérick, & Fleischhacker, Melanie (in print). The Transformational Power of Questioning Practices in Coaching – Insights from Linguistics and Interdisciplinary Research. In: Power in Language, Culture, Literature and Education: The Perspectives of English Studies, herausgegeben von Marta Degani und Werner Delanoy. |
Graf, Eva-Maria, Kabatnik, Susanne, & Fleischhacker, Melanie (under revision). “wenn wir jetzt in den nächsten minutn die wir zusammen hier für das gespräch habn dieser frage nachgehn. woran würden sie so anfangn festzustellen dass wir da in ner richtigen richtung unterwegs sin?” – Eine gesprächsanalytische Typologisierung von Fragen zur Lösungsentwicklung im Business Coaching. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Linguistik. |
Graf, Eva-Maria, Spranz-Fogasy, Thomas, & Künzli, Hansjörg (in preparation). QueSCo – Questioning Sequences in Coaching (study protocol). |
Graf, Eva-Maria, Spranz-Fogasy, Thomas, Künzli, Hansjörg, Calasso, Lara, Dionne, Frédérick, Fleischhacker, Melanie, Fofana, Gundula, & Hinzmann, Sandra (in preparation) Manual für die Kodierung von Fragetypen im Coaching, Zwischenergebnis einer linguistisch-psychologischen Zusammenarbeit. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Linguistik. |
Moos, Chantal, Fleischhacker, Melanie, Dionne, Frédérick, Spranz-Fogasy, Thomas & Graf, Eva-Maria (under review). Fragen als Motor für Veränderung? Ein interdisziplinäres Forschungsprojekt zu Fragepraktiken im Business-Coaching. Sprachreport. |
Spranz-Fogasy, Thomas, & Moos, Chantal (in preparation). Emotionsbezogene Fragen und Rephrasing Action als Tool zur Anregung der (Selbst-)reflexion (Arbeitstitel). Frontiers. |
Theses and planned theses
Calasso, Lara. Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Executive Coaching. The Role of Appropriate Responsiveness. (Doctoral Thesis – planned) |
Dionne, Frédérick. Responsiveness in Questioning Sequences: A Focus on Business Coaching Practices. (Doctoral Thesis – planned) |
Fleischhacker, Melanie. Questioning Sequences in Executive Coaching – A Linguistic Analysis of the Sequential Organization of Questions and their Prior Actions in Coaching. (Doctoral Thesis – planned) |
Guthoff, Muriel (2022). Das innere Team im Job-Coaching. Analysen zur Erstaufstellung und Lösungsentwicklung. Masterarbeit, Universität Mannheim. |
Moos, Chantal. Zielaushandlung und Agenda-Setting Aktivitäten. Eine gesprächsanalytische Untersuchung von Fragesequenzen in authentischen Coaching-Gesprächen. (Master Thesis) |
Weber, Annalena. Gelenkstellen im Coaching. Von der Problemausarbeitung zur Lösungsentwicklung. (Project Thesis) |

Published contributions and previous findings
Deplazes, Silvia, Graf, Eva-Maria, & Künzli, Hansjörg (2018). Das TSPP-Modell – Eine Blaupause für die Coaching Prozessforschung. Coaching | Theorie & Praxis, 4, 69-82. | Access Publication |
Graf, Eva-Maria, & Dionne, Frédérick (2021). ‚Knowing that‘, ‚knowing why‘ and ‚knowing how‘: Aligning perspectives and assembling epistemes for a transdisciplinary analysis of questioning sequences in Executive Coaching. A research journey. Special issue of AILA Review, 34(1), 56-78. | Access Publication |
Graf, Eva-Maria, Dionne, Frédérick, & Spranz-Fogasy, Thomas (2020). How to investigate the local and global change potential of questioning sequences in executive coaching? A call for interdisciplinary research. Scandinavian Studies in Language, 11(1), 214-238. | Access Publication |
Graf, Eva-Maria, & Dionne Frédérick (2021). Coaching Research in 2020. About Destinations, Journeys and Travelers (Part II). International Coaching Psychology Review 16 (2), 6-21. | Access Publication |
Graf, Eva-Maria, & Spranz-Fogasy, Thomas (2018). Welche Frage, wann und warum? Eine qualitativ-linguistische Programmatik zur Erforschung von Frage-Sequenzen als zentrale Veränderungspraktik im Coaching. Coaching | Theorie & Praxis, 4, 17-32. | Access Publication |
Graf, Eva-Maria, & Ukowitz, Martina (2020). Transdisziplinarität in der Coaching-Prozessforschung – Neue Wege der Zusammenarbeit. Coaching | Theorie & Praxis, 6, 1-16. | Access Publication |
Kabatnik, Susanne & Eva-Maria Graf (2021). Lösungsorientierte Fragen im Coaching- und Psychotherapie-Gespräch – Ein gesprächslinguistischer Vergleich ihres interaktionstypspezifischen, lokalen Veränderungspotentials. Coaching | Theorie & Praxis. | Access Publication |
Scarvaglieri, Claudio, Graf, Eva-Maria, & Spranz-Fogasy, Thomas (2022). Relationships in Organized Helping. Analyzing interaction in psychotherapy, medical encounters, coaching and in social media. John Benjamins Publishing Company. | Access Publication |
Spranz-Fogasy, Thomas, Graf, Eva-Maria, Ehrenthal, Johannes C., & Nikendei, Christoph (2019). Beispiel-Nachfragen im Kontext von Veränderung: Elizitierungs- und Prozessierungsstrategien in Psychotherapie und Coaching-Gesprächen. In E.-M. Graf, C. Scarvaglieri, & T. Spranz-Fogasy (Hrsg.), Pragmatik der Veränderung. Problem- und lösungsorientierte Kommunikation in helfenden Berufen (S. 177-209). Tübingen: Gunter Narr. | Access Publication |
Spranz-Fogasy, Thomas, Graf, Eva-Maria, Ehrenthal, Johannes C., & Nikendei, Christoph (2019). Requesting Examples in Psychodiagnostic Interviews: Therapists’ Contribution to the Sequential Co-construction of Clients’ Change. Communication and Medicine, 16(2), 129-141. | Access Publication |