Meaning Making and Writing Processes across Languages and Genres: A Case Study of Two Bilingual Biscriptal Children with Reading Difficulties

Abstract

This study explores the meaning-making and writing processes of two bilingual biscriptal children with reading difficulties. Each participant produced four texts, one descriptive and one narrative text in Persian (L1) and Swedish (L2). Drawing on systemic functional linguistics (SFL), some aspects of interpersonal, ideational and textual meanings were analyzed as the participants composed their texts across these two languages and genres. The Eye and Pen software was used to examine the writing processes. The results demonstrated that the participant with only poor word recognition successfully created similar meaning across languages and genres. However, the participant with mixed reading difficulties generally struggled to produce similar meaning across languages and genres. Similar patterns were observed in the participants’ writing processes. Both of them were more fluent writers in their L2 than in their L1 and could produce meaning more fluently in their L2 compared to their L1. The participants’ writing profiles in both languages were in agreement with previous studies on the writing of monolinguals with similar difficulties. The findings are discussed from a multi-competence perspective