Behaviorists defined transfer from the point of habit formation, which implies the extinction of the learners’ previous language when he or she is learning a new language。 The following comments made by Gass&Selink(2001) can illustrate how the concepts of habit formation were applied to foreign language learning。 “The more knowledge and skills of one language that an inpidual acquires, the more probable it becomes that his or her new learning will be influenced by his or her previous experiences and activities。 Unfamiliar with the task that confronts him or her, the information and habits built up in the past will be his or her point of departure。 So transfer to training from old situation to new one is necessary to pay attention to”。

While some scholars regarded language transfer as the influence from similarities and differences between the native language and foreign language as it is shown in the following quotation:

“Language Transfer is a theoretical notion, concept, or conception that aims at explaining certain linguistic phenomena, resulting from the interaction of two or more areaas of intra-lingual transfer within a speaker or hearer, to be found in his or her linguistic behaviors or outputs”。(Gass&Selinker, 1983:92) 

3。2 Classification of language transfer

For the first time, Jarvis and Pavlenko systematically classified language transfer into ten dimensions, of which one was just language knowledge。 Also, language knowledge is pided into phonetic transfer, spelling transfer, lexical transfer, syntax transfer, semantic transfer, sociolinguistic transfer, discourse transfer and so on。 Viewed from the angle of result, it is pided into positive transfer and negative transfer; from the angle of direction, it is also classified into positive transfer, backward transfer, lateral transfer and double-directed transfer or multi-directional transfer。(Wen Qiufang 2010:142)

Positive language refers to the similarities of forms between the language that one has acquired and the target language。 The similarities can promote the acquisition of second language acquisition。 The positive transfer of native language is throughout every process of SLA, which can not be ignored。 Although the source of transfer includes inter-lingual transfer and intra-lingual transfer and they have a close relationship, the writer mainly focuses on intra-lingual positive transfer。 The learner’s knowledge of similarities between different languages can promote positive transfer and then benefit the acquisition of target language。文献综述

Negative transfer means when there are few or even no similarities between the acquired language and the target language, the acquired language will interfere second language acquisition。 Negative transfer is studied on different aspects, like the culture of learners, native language, expressing method, thinking habit and so on。 In the process of second language acquisition, negative transfer should be avoided with a maximum of effort。 

3。3 Overseas and domestic research status of language transfer and its analysis

In foreign countries, language transfer has totally experienced three mainly phases from 1950s to present。 

The first phase is in 1950s and 1960s, the theoretical basis of contrastive analysis formed under the impact of behaviourism。 Generally, the publishing of Lado’s Linguistics Across Culture marked the formation of contrastive analysis。 This phase emphasizes the influence on second language acquisition of differences between native language and second language。 

The second phase was from 1960s to 1970s, when the behaviourism, in a predominant position for a long time, was disputed and with the drive of Chomsky’s Universal Grammar, contrastive analysis was gradually replaced by Interlanguage Hypothesis。 Soon, many theories like Interlanguage Hypothesis Models, Markness Theory and Error Analysis formed。 In this phase, linguisticians not only studied differences between languages but also started to discover and take advantage of the similarities in languages。 Moreover, this phase stressed the generalities of native language and second language。 During this time, many researches were conducted, but most of them were theoretical ones and empirical research just began。