Learning Transfer in English for General Academic Purposes Writing

Abstract

This article was launched to investigate if learning from an English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP) writing course transfers to other writing contexts. The study focused on the issue of transfer across disciplines, tasks, and two languages (English and Persian). The data were collected through interviews and writing samples from the participants’ own EGAP class and their other courses in the university (non-EGAP). The interviews were transcribed and coded for the self-reports of learning transfer, and the writing samples were analyzed for the 10 learning outcomes already instructed in the class. The results demonstrated that transfer of learning was variably achieved within interview-based transcriptions and writing samples, though to a varying degree. Showing high degree of conformity and a roughly similar general regularity, both series of data indicate that learning transfer does occur, though inconsistently, across disciplines, tasks, and the two languages.