Although much time and energy has been devoted over the years to questions of strategy definition, theory, research methodology and other such academic issues, the key practical question of how to transfer strategic knowledge to new or less successful learners has often been neglected. In the absence of effective strategy instruction, strategic knowledge is often gained by hard experience, accompanied by the stress, frustration and discouragement that comes with a trial-and-error approach to strategy development by less effective or inexperienced learners.

Although stated long ago as a major aim of strategy research (Rubin, 1975), more than 30 years later Manchon et al. (2007) were complaining that strategy instruction remained ‘under-researched’ (2007: 246), a gap that Chamot and Harris (2018) aimed to fill with their book about issues and implementation of strategy instruction in the language classroom. According to the authors, this book is the first since Chamot et al. (1999) to focus solely on strategy instruction, and it includes instructional progression and differentiation, cultural factors, and different instructional models. In addition, the book addresses the lack of readily available teaching materials which affect the preparation of language teachers to engage effectively in strategy instruction and research initiatives.

The questions which this chapter aims to address include:

• • How do strategies fit into the overall picture of language teaching theory as it has evolved over the years?

• • How teachable are strategies?

• • What have we learnt from previous research?

• • What strategy instruction programmes have there been?

• • What are teachers’ perceptions?

• • What have we learnt from classroom experiences?

• • How should strategy instruction be conducted?

• • What should be included in strategy instruction programmes?

• • How can learner confidence be promoted?

• • How should learner, situational and target variables be dealt with?

• • How can teachers be trained to conduct strategy instruction effectively?

Since all of the above questions are important, let us look at them one by one.