Mixing Methods

Self-regulated foreign languagelearners use strategies to support learning processes and to achieve learningoutcomes. The study reported in this chapter combined quantitative andqualitative research methods to analyze the preferences in strategy choice offive English as a foreign language (EFL) learners at an Austrian school. Thestudy showed that learning strategies were mainly used in combination withother learning strategies and that the same strategy may fulfil differentpurposes if applied in different learning situations. The learning environmentand individual learner preferences play an important role in self-regulated,strategic foreign language learning because they are part of a complex andflexible context.