ABSTRACT
Foreign language study can help students to understand key processes underlying learning. Progress in language ability is more apparent to a learner and to her peers than is progress in most other academic disciplines, where performance may be more private and difficult to assess. As a result, students of foreign languages tend to be actively curious about differences among learners and among learning tasks. The effect of prior knowledge of a language provides a solid illustration of a learning principle: “the rich get richer.” The two principles, that multiple cues enhance recall and that automating a learning task frees resources for other learning tasks, are among the most important principles in the study of the learning process. Learning a foreign language and being around other language learners provides students with numerous clear illustrations of these principles. Much of language learning involves retrieving memorized information: words, verb endings, irregular verb forms.
