Abstract: Although many students are opting for the convenience of online study, there is a paucity of literature documenting the rationale for students’ choice of face-to-face or online learning format. As such, this study examined learner preferences for discussions in reading instruction. The study also compared the discussions generated by different sub-groups of students and explored the variances within students’ discussions generated from online and face-to-face learning formats. The following research questions guided the study: (a) What are learners’ preferences for discussions in reading instruction? (b) Does one discussion format facilitate meaning-making more than the other for various sub-groups and (c) Do patterns of discourse and learners preferences stay consistent across time and learners sub-groups or do differences occur due to diversity? Results indicated that majority of the participants preferred face-to-face discussion format to online discussion format in reading instruction. Participants also professed a belief that face-to-face discussions facilitate meaning-making more than online discussion. While such perception does not apply to all learner groups in the study, the results further showed that patterns of discourse and learners preferences stay consistent across time and learners, but differences occur due to learner diversity. Recommendations are made on how to facilitate learner inclusion and collaborative learning in both learning formats.