Learning a new language is a challenge facing most young immigrants and refugees arriving in a new resettlement country. Yet, learning the resettlement country language is critical for the young immigrants and refugees' life chances, in terms of future education, social integration, and participation in the labour market. While literature concerned with Language Learning Strategies (LLS) points to the determining effects of social and physical learning environments on language acquisition, few studies have systematically examined how LLS are practiced in the social and educational contexts of preparatory classes for newcomer adolescents. Guided by the concept of LLS, we qualitatively explore the tactics adopted by 85 newcomer adolescents in Danish preparatory classes when learning the Danish language. We disentangle a range of different social and affective language learning strategies such as interacting with native speakers, practising with people sharing the same language skills, and using laughter and exchanging praise to overcome nervousness and anxiety. We highlight how these informal strategies interact and how the newcomer students adopt the strategies to facilitate their language learning. We argue that preparatory classes serve as unique social and educational spaces for supporting the development of social and affective language learning strategies that constructively interact to create conducive conditions for language acquisition.