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Language transfer is when people learning a new language use aspects of their native language to aid understanding. It’s most common when the new language is similar to their original language. This can occur consciously or unconsciously and can involve letters, sounds, meanings, and other factors.
The term language transfer is used to describe what happens when people who are learning a new language transfer applications from their native language, or their first language, to the new language. That is to say, new language learners use some of the aspects applicable to the previous language while learning the new one as part of the process of understanding or learning the new language. If so, the transfer could take place at various levels, including the transfer of letters, sounds, meanings and other factors that can enhance the learning experience.
The language transfer process is most common when the new language that the individual is trying to learn bears some sort of similarity to that person’s original language. This similarity may be due to the fact that the new language is simply another dialect that closely resembles a language or another variant of the old language. It could also occur in a situation where the new language is a bastardization of another language, as is the case with Pidgin English. With Pidgin English, the language is primarily a blend of English and some local words and terms that may have been imbued with other meanings than intended by the original language. English speakers looking to learn the language often try to speed up the process through the language transfer method, in which case they try to use their knowledge of the original meaning for various words of the English language to help them understand the new language.
The reason why a linguistic transfer might be possible in such a case stems from the fact that the two languages have elements of similarity. The same would not be easy with an original English speaker trying to learn the Cantonese language due to the vast differences in fonts, pronunciation and use of the idiom. Sometimes, the transfer occurs on a conscious level whereby the speaker of another language trying to learn a new one makes a conscious effort to apply elements of the old one as part of the learning process of the new language. Other times, the process occurs on a more unconscious level whereby such a person will unknowingly make the transfer from one language to another without even realizing that the process is taking place.
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