This study deals with instructions which are given by experts (in this case car mechanics) and which concern the carrying out of concrete (here: mechanical) operations. Within the instructional dialogue, a transfer of knowledge between an expert and a novice takes place. The instruction produced by the expert is understood as the result of a problem-solving process. The expert knowledge about the carrying out of the mechanical operation is conceptualised as being represented in a hierarchical form. The single utterances which make up the whole instruction can be assigned to different levels of this action hierarchy. It is shown that the expert's adaptations to the novice occur as movements in the action hierarchy. These movements can be interpreted as systematic changes in the degree of solubility. This can be taken as an argument for the use of the problem-solving paradigm as a theoretical frame of reference for the psycholinguistic analyses and theoretical reconstruction of instructional dialogues.
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