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This article reports an experiment investigating similarities and differences in basic processing involved in the word reading of second language (L2) readers of English. The investigation specifically targeted phonological and orthographic processes in the context of language transfer from native language (L1) to L2 during reading tasks. Groups of young adults who were native speakers of either Russian or Japanese and low‐intermediate ESL learners were matched on a measure of English word reading and then compared on a number of cognitive and linguistic reading‐related tasks. Despite differences in processing strengths, neither group demonstrated an advantage in nonword reading. The results have implications for theories of reading disability built around the notion of deficits in phonological processing.