Learning skills refer to the skills that make learning possible.
There is a tendency nowadays to confuse the word skill with related concepts like strategy, method, and technique. Many people, when talking about “learning skills,” actually mean learning strategies, learning methods, or learning techniques.
Let us first look at the origins, especially of the words skill and strategy. This will provide us with a clear clue about the inherent connotations of the two concepts.
The word skill derives from the Old Norse word skil, which means “knowledge.” Modern Icelandic still has the word skilja, which means “to know.” In modern English, the word skill refers specifically to the “ability that comes from knowledge, practice, aptitude etc., to do something well,” or to a “competent excellence in performance, execution, workmanship, the practice of an art, etc.”
On the other hand, the word strategy derives from the Greek word stratos = army, and the word agein = lead. Strategy, therefore, refers to how the general leads his army to exploit best the fighting skills the soldiers have already acquired through constant practice and training. In the learning situation, this would refer to the most effective ways, techniques, or methods that the learner can employ the learning skills, which they have previously acquired through practice and training. This further implies that a person cannot employ learning strategies successfully if they lack learning skills, just like soldiers cannot employ strategies if they lack fighting skills.
