Undergraduate Students' Voice Constructions in Padlet Online Discussions

Abstract

This paper explored the construction of voice in Padlet online discussions among undergraduate students. It highlights the use of Engagement resources as the realization of the establishment of voice in a text. Systemic Functional Linguistics based Engagement framework is applied to analyze how university students construe their voice in the online platform, including proposing their original viewpoints, acknowledging and countering the external perspective, as well as utilizing the external voice to strengthen their position. The data were gathered throughout the transcript of two sections of Padlet online discussion and interview with the instructor. The Result revealed that the students have attempted to build more dialogic discursive writing through Heteroglossic move, but still employed abundant numbers of Monoglossic move that restrict the chance to more dynamic and dialogic text. The extensive use of Expand resources also indicates the students' efforts to engage the readers with providing external voices but having less effort to dialogically contract the negotiation space to privilege one viewpoint over others. This paper is ended up with a pedagogical implication for developing students' awareness of voice in virtual writing instructions.