Kaksikieliset oppilaat suomea ja venäjää kirjoittamassa : minun rakkaus väri - valeasininen ja violetti

Abstract

The present study focuses on Russian-Finnish bilingual pupils’ writing performances which were evaluated on the Common European Framework of Reference scale by three raters. The aim is to investigate how the pupils differ in their two languages in writing. In addition to CEFR-ratings we attempt to characterize the pupils’ performances on a more qualitative level as well as to describe their background in order to understand the reasons behind the level of their performances. Especially the pupils performing poorly in both languages are discussed. The results show that growing to become bilingual is complex: in addition to speaking Russian at home, the immigrant pupils should also read and write in Russian in order to become equally fluent in those skills. Also, we suggest that bilingual pupil’s writing performance in both languages should be evaluated at school, in order for teachers to better understand and diagnose the pupil’s problems in learning to read.