Correct Response: A. Being literate in one's first language provides an English learner with linguistic and conceptual foundations that do not need to be relearned when acquiring a second language. For example, an English learner who has developed strong literacy skills in the first language has developed reading comprehension skills and strategies and background knowledge that can transfer directly to the new language. If the student's first language is alphabetic, the student also has developed phonological awareness and decoding skills that can transfer directly to English, even if new letter-sound correspondences need to be learned. B, C, and D are all factors that are likely to be beneficial to the English learner's social-emotional and sociocultural development, which can, in turn, indirectly benefit language learning. However, their impact is not likely to be as significant or as direct as the development of first-language literacy skills.
