Introduction

An important issue in second language (L2) teaching is transfer of learning. Transfer occurs ‘when learning in one context or with one set of materials impacts on performance in another context or with another set of materials’ (Perkins & Salomon Reference Perkins, Salomon, Husen and Postlethwaite1994: 6452). For example, knowing how to play guitar may help a person who is learning to play the piano, or experience playing team sports may help a person who has a job that involves teamwork, or having learned math in school may help a person who is shopping. Questions about whether and how learning is applied in different contexts are central to an understanding of human behavior, and answers to such questions are of practical value to educators. It is not surprising, then, that for over a century, transfer has been ‘among the most challenging, contentious, and important issues for both psychology and education’ (Day & Goldstone Reference Day and Goldstone2012: 153).

Transfer of learning is relevant to L2 teaching in multiple ways. It has been common to view transfer as the influence – often negative – of knowledge of one language on the learning and use of another language (e.g., a Spanish speaker producing an English sentence with Spanish word order, e.g., ‘The car red is mine’). Selinker (Reference Selinker1972) argued that such language transfer is one of the central processes in L2 learning, and the large amount of research on this topic (e.g., Jarvis & Pavlenko Reference Jarvis and Pavlenko2008; Koda & Reddy Reference Koda and Reddy2008) reflects the observation that language transfer has been ‘one of the most fundamental notions in L2 acquisition research’ (Johnson & Johnson Reference Johnson and Johnson1998: 353). Also, besides transfer across languages, attention has been given to transfer within an L2. The central processes of L2 learning described by Selinker (Reference Selinker1972) include transfer of training (e.g., eastern European learners of English overusing the pronoun ‘he’ because their textbooks and teachers almost always used that pronoun) and overgeneralization (e.g., an English learner using the verb ‘drive’ not just with the word ‘car’ but also with the word ‘bicycle’), both of which involve the problematic application of L2 learning in L2 use situations. This intra-lingual perspective on transfer has been common in research investigating sources of L2 errors (Brown Reference Brown2014: 260).

Another way transfer is relevant to L2 teaching – and that is the focus of this research timeline – is the positive transfer of L2 learning. Since language transfer, transfer of training, and overgeneralization are often negative, transfer from those perspectives may be seen by L2 teachers as something to try to avoid. In contrast, positive transfer of L2 learning is the basic goal of L2 teaching, and from this perspective, transfer is something that L2 teachers should try to promote. Johns (Reference Johns, Carson and Leki1993: 283), for example, argued that promoting transfer is one of the most important aspects of any English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) class, and Brown (Reference Brown2014: 95‒96) highlighted students’ positive transfer of L2 learning (e.g., from the classroom to the world outside) as a key consideration for L2 teachers. In other words, L2 teachers should teach for transfer of L2 learning.

Unfortunately, teaching for transfer of L2 learning poses a formidable challenge. In reviews of learning transfer research, Detterman (1993)Footnote * concluded that despite researchers’ efforts to promote transfer, lack of success has been pervasive, and Haskell (2001)Footnote * noted that failure to achieve transfer has been profound: ‘That transfer seldom occurs in any significant way is repeatedly shown in both laboratory research and in the classroom’ (p. 47). In research focusing specifically on L2 learning, the challenge of promoting transfer is apparent. For example, even if L2 learners have relatively immediate opportunities to transfer learning (e.g., university ESL students who are taking English for academic purposes [EAP] writing courses concurrently with other academic courses), they may not do so (Leki Reference Leki1995), or may do so only infrequently (James 2006),Footnote * or with some learning outcomes more than others (James 2009).Footnote * The challenge is reflected in Tardy's (Reference Tardy2006) conclusion, based on a review of studies of L2 genre learning, that ‘transfer from one domain to another is, at the very least, difficult for learners’ (p. 92).

With this in mind, the timeline below focuses on scholarly work that is particularly relevant to teaching for transfer of L2 learning. The goal was to gather a collection of sources that would offer a global, chronological view of this work. The procedure involved reviewing sources that I was already familiar with through my work on transfer, and searching for other potentially relevant sources, for example in the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) online database and in surveys of research on transfer (Kolesnik Reference Kolesnik1957, Reference Kolesnik1958; Haskell 2001;Footnote * Day & Goldstone Reference Day and Goldstone2012; Larsen-Freeman 2013).Footnote * Since the body of scholarly work related to transfer is large and diverse, I aimed for sources that:

• • reflect a primarily positive view of transfer (e.g., as a goal of teaching, not as interference);

• • deal with transfer explicitly (e.g., as a primary research question, as a topic of extensive discussion);Footnote ¹

• • focus on teaching (e.g., a particular L2 teaching methodology or technique, such as task-based instruction);

• • represent key developments (e.g., a foundation for subsequent scholarly work; a challenge to or extension of existing ideas).

My main focus was sources that deal with transfer specifically of L2 learning; however, I also looked for sources that are not L2-specific but that represent key developments in the larger body of work on transfer that are reflected in L2-specific work. The result was the collection of 51 sources – mainly L2-specific, but also non-L2-specific – in the present timeline.

This research timeline is limited in that the sources included are a sample from a large, complex body of scholarly work; so, arguments could be made for excluding some of these sources or including others. (For example, the empirical studies in the timeline reflect a variety of research designs; depending on one's views of the relative strengths and weaknesses of types of research designs, questions could be raised about sources from this perspective.) However, this small collection of sources does illustrate general themes in scholarly work on this topic, as follows:

1. A. Continuing emphasis of transfer of L2 learning as important to L2 teaching. Transfer of L2 learning has been linked not only to L2 teaching in general but also to specific models of L2 teaching, including the audio-lingual method, communicative language teaching, genre-based/content-based/task-based instruction, and L2 for specific purposes instruction.

2. B. Evolving conceptualization of transfer of L2 learning. Transfer has at times been defined relatively narrowly (e.g., as immediate, and without change to what was learned), and at other times relatively broadly (e.g., as occurring over time, and including adaptation of what was learned). A recent push has been toward viewing transfer of L2 learning in a flexible way (e.g., DePalma & Ringer 2011),Footnote * but also in a way that is precise and systematic (e.g., James 2014).Footnote *

3. C. Expanding, increasingly detailed picture of teaching for transfer of L2 learning. Empirical research has examined transfer of a growing range of types of learning (e.g., grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency, pragmatics, rhetorical structure), over varying distances (Barnett & Ceci 2002)Footnote * (e.g., across knowledge domains [e.g., with new topics] across modalities [e.g., from listening tasks to speaking tasks; from fill-in-the-blanks tasks to essay-writing tasks], across physical contexts [e.g., from L2 courses to other courses]). Furthermore, scholarly work has broadened in scope by focusing not only on teaching but also on learners and on transfer contexts. The resulting picture points to the following factors as particularly relevant to teaching for transfer of L2 learning:

   1. 1. contextual similarity (e.g., between learning and testing tasks)

   2. 2. learning of general principles

   3. 3. amount of practice

   4. 4. variability in practice

   5. 5. learner affect (e.g., motivation to transfer)

   6. 6. support for transfer in transfer contexts.