Writing in A Bilingual Program: The Relation of L1 and L2 Texts

This is a report on the relationship between first language and second language writing. Nine first, nine second, and eight third graders in a unique bilingual program (emphasizing writing, a whole-language approach to literacy, and literacy in the first language before second language literacy instruction is begun) provided the writing data. The L1/L2 writing relationship might be viewed as either interference of L1 with L2 writing or as application of L1 to L2 writing. Taking the second view, but given that texts written by the same child in Spanish and in English demonstrate both similarities and differences, the question remains: what is it that is applied? The answer: everything—from particular local hypotheses regarding spelling, to more global hypotheses regarding differential constraints on oral vs. written texts, to abstract processes for producing texts. Some factors that might influence the level of knowledge and hypotheses that are used in L2 writing are: the nature of the written systems of the two languages, the writer's proficiency in the L2, the nature of the literacy experience, sociolinguistic constraints, and the nature of the writing process itself.