Natural Order in Children's Use of Second Language Learning Strategies1

There is an increasing awareness among researchers and educators that the study of second language learning as it occurs in educational settings must go beyond inves-tigating the product of the schooling experience and consider also the process through which language is acquired. Investigators must be concerned not only with the mastery of certain grammatical forms, but with the learner's ability to take advantage of learning experiences that provide practice with the semantic, com-municative, and pragmatic functions of those forms. In the case of young children learning a second language, this includes participating in classroom activities structured to promote the learning of language and other cognitive skills, and taking advantage of classroom resources to shape one's own language learning experiences. Although recent research has attempted to categorize the strategies used by students in gaining practice in their second language, the degree to which such strategies are systematic in their development has yet to be investigated. Much of the research related to the use of strategies in the learning of a second language has focused on defining the concept of a strategy, and categorizing