Voice for Teaching L2 Writing: Affordance or Constraint?

The mixed-method study firstly drew on regression analysis to check what influential variables were in constructing authorial voice of 45 Chinese MTI students (postgraduates) in an EFL writing course, and then based upon quantitative findings, qualitatively examined how students' EFL writing may resonate with voice teaching in the course with data from a questionnaire, student essays, and a follow-up interview. The quantitative findings located five influential statistically significant variables of authorial voice: The positively influential ones include genre knowledge, stakeholders' expectation, awareness of reflection and revision, while the negative ones are socially enabled positions of major and career, and individual knowledge required by certain discourse communities' norms and value systems. The qualitative findings indicated: Awareness of reflection and revision was valued in enabling both linguistic repertoire and ideation in EFL writing; genre knowledge could facilitate linguistic growth and structuring of writing. The fourfold pedagogical implication was also presented.