The study of native language influence in Second Language Acquisition has undergone significant changes over the past few decades. This book, which includes 12 chapters by distinguished researchers in the field of second language acquisition, traces the conceptual history of language transfer from its early role within a Contrastive Analysis framework to its current position within Universal Grammar.

The introduction presents a continuum of thought starting from the late 70s, a time in which major rethinking in the field regarding the concept of language transfer was beginning to take place, and continuing through the present day in which language transfer is integrated within current concepts and theoretical models.

The afterword unites the issues discussed and allows the reader to place these issues in the context of future research. For the present book, the 1983 edition has been thoroughly revised, and some papers have been replaced and added.