| Summary: | A large area of interest within the field of applied linguistics is the investigation of why certain individuals are able to learn languages more effectively than others. This area of research, called individual differences in second language acquisition (see Dörnyei 2005), has become an important field in applied linguistics, incorporating diverse notions such as age, motivation (see also Woodrow this volume), and the exploration of the strategies that language learners use to support their language own development. While early research into learner strategies in the 1970s (e.g. Rubin 1975) had the intent of highlighting strategies of ‘good’ language learners, the area of language learner trategies has blossomed into a research field in its own right. Because strategies are learner-driven, the field has naturally strong ties to the fields of self-regulation (see Tseng et al. 2006), learner autonomy (see Benson 2013), and agency (see Gao 2010). This chapter aims to provide an overview of language learner strategy research, and to outline the typical stages in conducting research in this field. It then discusses issues involved with choosing the right data collection instruments and theoretical framework for research. Finally it discusses problems in the field.
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