Nerdy thoughts...

If language is just a way to communicate then it makes sense that if you can think in one lang you can think in another. Thus literacy would transfer and all other academic skills would as well. I'll keep reading my book. As the kid from the intern meaning said "learning a foreign language makes you good at other stuff. " Really learning a language increases the ways one has to express oneself. It allows the learner also I think to have a broader sense of mind in order to think. I'll have to formulate my theory better. :)