A Review of Theoretical and Empirical Studies on Second Language Acquisition Strategies

Abstract

The review will focus on the recent theoretical and empirical research studies on the second language acquisition (SLA) strategies and will consider those studies published since 2018. It discusses categorizing strategies based on cognitive, metacognitive, affective and social strategies and direct versus indirect strategies and provides their usages in vocabulary learning, technology-based learning, and higher education settings. The review also explores the effect of learner specific factors like motivation, anxiety, and autonomy on strategy selection and effectiveness. A synthesis of the recent researches shows that there are tendencies to combine technology and AI with the old methods, to facilitate individualized and learner-centered teaching, and show that a positive correlation between strategies implementation and language performance is possible. The gaps in research are the lack of research on young learners, less popular languages among which are taught, and the necessity of long-term experimental studies. The review ends with suggestions on how the educators and researchers need to strengthen the teaching and learning of SLA strategy and how they can use the emerging technologies to maximize the outcomes of language learning