Foreign Language Learning Strategy Choice: Naturalistic Versus Instructed Language Acquisition

This study explores whether there are differences in the choice of language learning strategy and in the frequency of its use in the concurrent acquisition of two foreign languages, one being learned in a tutored and the other in a non-tutored manner. Specifically, it investigates the tutored learning of English in a formal setting and the non-tutored acquisition of Turkish in a non-formal setting by international university students at Bogazi i University. The results indicate that although the students make use of all types of learning strategies irrespective of the learning context, compensation as a direct learning strategy seems to be the one most frequently deployed in both tutored and naturalistic learning. On the other hand, a significant difference is observed in indirect strategy preference with respect to learning context: in tutored English learning students make more use of metacognitive strategies, whereas in non-tutored Turkish acquisition they often use social strategies.