Cognitive Skill Training Theories for Optimal Language Learning

This paper reviews cognitive skill training theories that can contribute to language learning. The article describes five theories having strong empirical support from the experimental psychology literature, aiming at sharing those theoretical ideas with teachers and students who are not in this particular research field. The topics covered are the generation effect, the spacing effect, overlearning, prior knowledge, and task difficulty, which mainly deal with retention and transfer of skills and knowledge. For each theory, explanations of the terminology, examples of empirical support, and pedagogical implications will be given.