Up until the 1960s and early 1970s the prevailing account of the process of second language acquisition relied on the notion of transfer and contrastive analysis. It was assumed that most of the difficulties facing the learner of a second language were the result of interference from his native language. Where there were differences between the L1 and L2, the learner’s knowledge would interfere with the L2. Where the L1 and L2 were similar, knowledge of L1 would aid L2 learning. This is the essence of the notion of transfer. The concept was originally formulated within the context of behaviourist psychology, which treated learning as a result of habit formation by reinforcement. Where there are similarities, transfer is positive; where there are differences, transfer is negative. Errors will result from negative but not positive transfer.
- Romaine (1988), a pag.206