TOWARDS A GLOBAL VIEW OF THE TRANSFER PHENOMENON

Language transfer (or cross-linguistic influence [CLI]) has long been at the base of the concept of second / foreign language (S/FL) acquisition / learning (A/L) and came to the forefront in the 1950s and 60s thanks to the hegemony experienced by both behaviorism in psychology and structuralism in linguistics. However, after the fall of these two theories, the role of transfer was minimized. It is our aim in the first part of this paper to provide an overall view of transfer and its consideration in SLA / FLL theories and research. This done, our scope will be widened and we shall enter some recently-found research fields on which transfer also exerts its influence. We will also see to what extent those principles governing traditional transfer apply to these new areas and will eventually propose a hypothesis that might explain the apparent incongruitie