What’s missing? Compensation strategies – A case for task-specific strategy use

After thirty years of research and practice, the field of Language Learner/Learning Strategies (LLS) has witnessed a clear shift away from compiling ―good‖ strategies employed by the ―good‖ language learner to localizing an individual‘s strategic reactions to contextualized tasks. The present study‘s objective was to investigate if there is a link between strategy use and specific tasks within a specific setting, i.e., task-specific strategy use in an adult EFL (as opposed to ESL) classroom. This direction adds to the strategy research repertoire with more examples from different learning environments, making the research thread richer. This study also measured the effect of learners‘ prior strategy knowledge on actual strategy use. Results can help the process of mapping specific strategies to specific tasks.