Covid-19 contact tracing in Flanders/Belgium (2020-2022) implied an up-scaled nationwide implementation of telephone contact tracing via commercial call centres, by experienced telephone workers and recently recruited employees from the service industry and other sectors affected by the pandemic. The “genre” of contact tracing was hence new to many of them, and to large parts of the general public (Bafort et al., 2023). These interactions also took a particular thematic direction, involving a mix of contact tracing more narrowly, and contextualised advice on matters of quarantine/isolation, hygiene and conduct in the co-presence of (un)infected co-dwellers (Slembrouck et al., 2023).

Our paper reports on the results of a larger project and specifically on the analysis of the particular ways of asking questions in the call stage where the tracers record the index patient’s recent contacts and whereabouts, as well as map the patient’s symptoms. The reliability of the received answers, and manner of enquiry, were of central concern in the field of institutional practice, especially given the sensitive and private nature of the information sought after.

We first cover the quantitative overview of the range and types of question-answer sequences in the initial corpus of 100 recorded contact tracing telephone calls, which - among other findings – showed a prevalence of ‘naked questions’. Then, we discuss findings from an implementation with a pilot group (n=19) which was coached by the researchers for question formulation and sequential management (prefacing, directing, follow-up). The implementation involved a pre- and post-measurement of meta-pragmatic value orientations, as well as an interactional analysis of a recorded body of subsequently conducted telephone calls (n=66), which showed, for instance, that metapragmatic recognition was not matched by corresponding adjustments in interactional behaviour. We conclude with a number of reflections on the nature of questioning behaviour and the coachability of interaction.