Learning can only maintain its functional originality when it leads to permanent changes, and such changes are only possible if accompanied by self-explanation. The current study was conducted to investigate the effect of self-explanation and the solved examples on students’ transfer, intrinsic motivation, and cognitive load in English courses. It was an experiment in the form of a 2×2 generalized random block design. The population consisted of all 8th-grade students in Semnan, Iran, from whom 120 students were selected applying random sampling – by considering a figure for each student, writing each figure on a piece of paper, putting all inside a pack, mixing them together, and drawing one piece out each time to get 120 candidates. Teaching English was done using the “Solved Examples” method. The instruments applied to collect the data included the Intrinsic Motivation Questionnaire by Kuvaus and Dysvik (2009), the Cognitive Load Questionnaire by Paas and van Merrienboer (1993), and the researcher-made questionnaire of near and far transfer. The statistical analysis of the data was conducted using the Two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The findings indicated that the format of presenting content (ordinary and erroneous solved examples) and self-explanation are correlated significantly with the near and far transfer, cognitive load, and intrinsic motivation (P<0.01). Based on the obtained results, it can be argued that self-explaining and presenting solved examples are useful strategies to enhance students’ transfer, intrinsic motivation, and cognitive load in learning English, and can be included in the curriculum of schools to empower students in solving intellectual problems.
