<p>It has been suggested that both first and second language learning depends on the same underlying generic mechanisms, and when the language skills in the L1arecompromisedthis will likely have a negative influence on the second language systems (Ganschow et al. in J Learn Disabil 31(3):248–258, 1998). Furthermore, the results from a study focusing on reading words from a text (Farukh and Vulchanova in Usage Based Perspect Second Lang Learn 30:329–350, 2015) suggest that, even if the writing systems are not similar, but still share some traits (e.g., if both are alphabetic and have deep orthographies), there are fair chances of a positive transfer of reading skills from the first language (i.e. Urdu) to a second language (i.e. English). We investigated whether an association exists between L1 (Urdu) and L2 (English) word reading skills in two groups of readers (a control group with no reading difficulties and a reading deficit group), and whether increased exposure through language of instruction impacts word decoding skills of a second language. 66 3rd grade children from both English and Urdu medium (language) schools from a developing district of Punjab, Pakistan were recruited for this study. The children were screened from a bigger sample of 150 children and were tested on 3 types of word lists in both Urdu and English (a list of easy frequent words, a list of pseudo-words and a list of words of mixed difficulty). Word reading skills in Urdu (L1) and English (L2) were highly correlated. This relationship had even higher values for the reading deficit group. These results add a novel factor in multilingual literacy acquisition, namely the importance of the visual features of scripts (e.g. cursive property, graphemic complexity), not only the nature of orthography. Our results demonstrate that L1 word decoding and reading skills acquired in an deep orthography can transfer positively to L2 decoding and reading skills in another opaque orthography.</p>