A study on knowledge transfer between in and out-of-school language learning

The aim of this paper is to discuss the necessity of creating favourable conditions so that learners may recognize and make use of the existing learning opportunities at their disposal. Such a process of awareness is directed at becoming more conscious of learning strategy use and, in particular, of the way one personally applies language knowledge transfer. After briefly examining the literature on out-of-class learning including linguistic landscape and ICT, as well as considering the ever challenging issue of language transfer, this paper will present some research findings that are worth mentioning and debating for at least two reasons. Firstly, they showed a consistent lack of awareness in students’ ways of considering how (when, where, how often) they use foreign language(s): for instance, they seem unable (or unprepared) to grasp the learning opportunities that environment naturally provides – the kind of learning that, according to van Lier (1998: 157), continuously occurs in a learner’s everyday social world. Secondly, a rather large discrepancy has been registered between students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the nature and quantity of foreign language use by pupils outside school, thus putting into question teaching practices implemented with the scope of helping students transfer language knowledge.