Voice vs. text chats: Their efficacy for learning probing questions by non-native speaking medical professionals in online courses

Through an English for Specific Purposes (ESP): Communication in Nursing online course, the present study examines the efficacy of synchronous voice-based and text-based chats as instructional and communicative modes in learning to use open questions for probing in therapeutic dialogues by non-native speaking (NNS) participants, students of a nursing college at a major university in the Philippines.;The study draws on a plethora of research findings in online education, ESP online course designs, text-based vs. voice-based synchronous chats and their place in learning online, efficacy and application of text and voice-based communicative practices in online courses designed for NNS students, issues related to medical discourse, humanization, and patient-centeredness of communicative encounters (e.g., between a nurse/provider and a patient/client). The study examines the following questions: (1) which interactional mode – voice or text – provides for better learning of probing questions by NNS medical professionals through noticing of their use in therapeutic dialogues and situations typical for everyday healthcare-related communicative settings in an online course; (2) what evidence is there to suggest that the skill to use open questions for probing in role-plays of therapeutic dialogues by NNS medical professionals developed through text-based practices in an online course might transfer to their speech and vice versa; (3) which interactional mode - voice or text - is perceived by the online-course participants as more effective for learning to use probing questions in therapeutic dialogues and healthcare-related communicative encounters.;The results of the analyses supported many of the hypotheses for both research conditions. More specifically, they supported the predicted efficacy of both forms of online instruction and communication – voice-based and text-based – in learning probing techniques by the online course participants; furthermore, a possibility of the two-way language-skill transfer modes – from text-to-speech and from speech-to-text – was suggested in learning second language online through application of synchronous chat sessions. Although more research is necessary in the above-mentioned areas of language learning in the context of online education, the research findings of the present research study are highly suggestive of effective implementation of voice-based and text-based synchronous chats in ESP online course designs for NNS speaking students.