The aim of our study was to describe specific difficulties in reading and spelling in English (L2) of Polish (L1) students with dyslexia, as compared with Polish students without dyslexia. We found that Polish students with dyslexia, as compared with the controls, were less accurate and fluent in reading actual words and nonwords in L2. They made more phonological and orthographic errors in single L2 word spelling task; phonological spelling errors were more frequent than orthographic errors in both groups. The criterion group had more limited L2 vocabulary, regardless of the word difficulty. We also observed a positive correlation between the speed and accuracy of reading, and spelling in the two languages, though this relationship was more conspicuous in the control group. Our results corroborate Linguistic Coding Differences Hypothesis. Acquiring a second language poses substantial problems for the dyslexic students, who struggle with phonological processing deficits in L1 and L2. Display omitted •We examined difficulties in English (L2) of Polish (L1) students with dyslexia.•We compared their performance to that of Polish students without dyslexia.•Students with dyslexia were less accurate and fluent in reading words and nonwords.•Students with dyslexia made more phonological and orthographic errors in spelling.•Students with dyslexia struggled especially with the phonology of English.