Which explanation best supports transferring reading strategies from L1 to L2?

Which explanation best supports transferring reading strategies from L1 to L2?

• A. Mastery of phonemic awareness in L1 transfers directly to L2 with no differences.
• B. Good readers use strategies to fill in gaps, which can transfer to L2.
• C. L1 reading ability guarantees L2 speed reading.
• D. L1 reading ability is irrelevant to L2.

Answer: (B)

Transferring reading strategies from one language to another rests on using the same flexible, problem-solving approaches strong readers bring to any text. When readers are skilled, they actively manage understanding by predicting meaning from context, monitoring comprehension, clarifying unfamiliar words, and using background knowledge to make sense of what they read. These strategies aren’t tied to a single language; they can help when reading in a second language as well, because the goal remains to understand content, not just decode words. You can adapt these strategies to cope with unfamiliar vocabulary or new sentence structures in the second language, and they support steady comprehension even as language differences appear. Phonemic awareness in the first language isn’t a direct, one-to-one transfer to the second language because different languages have different sound systems and writing conventions. Decoding in the second language often requires learning new letter-sound relationships. Likewise, a high level of reading in the first language doesn’t automatically mean fast reading in the second; speed depends on vocabulary, exposure, and fluency in the second language. Yet overlooking the first language’s reading foundation would ignore the beneficial strategy-based base you can draw on when approaching texts in the second language.

Transferring reading strategies from one language to another rests on using the same flexible, problem-solving approaches strong readers bring to any text. When readers are skilled, they actively manage understanding by predicting meaning from context, monitoring comprehension, clarifying unfamiliar words, and using background knowledge to make sense of what they read. These strategies aren’t tied to a single language; they can help when reading in a second language as well, because the goal remains to understand content, not just decode words. You can adapt these strategies to cope with unfamiliar vocabulary or new sentence structures in the second language, and they support steady comprehension even as language differences appear.

Phonemic awareness in the first language isn’t a direct, one-to-one transfer to the second language because different languages have different sound systems and writing conventions. Decoding in the second language often requires learning new letter-sound relationships. Likewise, a high level of reading in the first language doesn’t automatically mean fast reading in the second; speed depends on vocabulary, exposure, and fluency in the second language. Yet overlooking the first language’s reading foundation would ignore the beneficial strategy-based base you can draw on when approaching texts in the second language.