Due to the dominance of behaviorism, applied linguistics, and cognitive psychology since 1960s, many research studies in reading focused on the accuracy and speed required for successful comprehension. There exists a research gap in understanding the individual differences among readers when reading the same text. This study aimed at investigating the active construction of meanings by comparing two participants' reader responses. Each of the two participants in this study referred to their personal history, educational background, and professional knowledge in their quest for meaning. The results show that they were not passively decoding the text, but actively constructing meaning during the reading process. With the application of Bakhtinian theories, the analysis shows that second language reading comprehension should be redefined as dialogic and dialectic processes between the reader, the text, and the imagined author. (Contains 1 table.)