the old. This matter is well understood by psychologists today 
as can be found in such a handbook as The Psychology of  
Human Learning  by John A. McGeoch. He says (p. 394): “The 
influence of prior learning (retained until the present) upon the 
learning of, response to, new material has traditionally been 
called transfer of learning .” Mostly, transfer effect is quite 
subliminal. But overt or conscious transfer can occur. We have 
seen some of both kinds of transfer at the beginning of this 
book where the response of African natives to alphabet and 
film was discussed. Our own Western response to new media 
like film and radio and TV, has been overtly a book culture 
response to the “challenge.” But the actual transfer of learning  
and change in mental process and attitude of mind that has 
occurred has been almost entirely subliminal. What we acquire 
as a system of sensibility by our mother tongue will affect our 
ability in learning other languages, verbal or symbolic. That is