The study’s target is to gain empirical evidence as to how autonomous learning in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom can effectively be supported during cooperative, text-based classroom activities by means of teacher support actions and appropriate learning environments. This calls for answers to the following important questions: a) What kind of strategies are helpful in a specific learning environment? b) What type of student is doing well in choosing and carrying out certain strategies? c) Which subgroup of students are in special need of additional teacher support?

Learning strategies are deemed significant to successful learning of students, especially in self-regulated learning environments (Zimmerman, Schunk, 2001; Boekaerts, Pintrich, Zeidner, 2000). However, empirical studies conducted in the USA, Australia, Britain, and Germany to corroborate this assumption initially produced mostly only weak support for this assumption, despite its well-established plausibility. In particular, this applies to correlational field studies, most of which yielded none or only weak correlations between habitual strategy use (i.e., a learner’s trait-dependent strategy style) and generalized measures of achievement (e.g., a student’s grade) (e.g. Pintrich, Garcia, 1993). More recently, learning strategy research has attempted to capture learner strategies through data collection procedures which are more proximal to specific learning situations, such as observation, concurrent and retrospective think-aloud, and stimulated recall. In studies using these procedures, strategy use has been found to correlate more strongly with (situation-specific) achievement. The ADEQUA video study („ADEQUAcy of Learning Strategy Use and Teacher Support Actions”) picks up this trend in learning strategy research and develops it further.

Up to now, strategy research has typically focused on how frequently certain types of learning strategies (e.g., repetition, elaboration, planning, monitoring) are used (e.g. Lahtinen/Lonka/Lindblom-Ylänne 1997). The frequency of the use of particular strategies does however not at all reveal if the learner has decided upon the “right” action for coping with his or her learning tasks and problems in a given micro-context of a learning process and if the chosen action is carried out in an appropriate way (Cohen, 1998).

ADEQUA explores an alternative approach to the mainstream of international studies in this research line: Instead of taking the frequency of strategy use as an indicator of the quality of the learning process and hence as a predictor of the learning outcome, ADEQUA assesses the adequacy of each single strategy used during a given task directly by high-inferential ratings (cf. Leutner, Leopold, den Elzen-Rump, 2007). Adequate strategy use is conceived of as being situationally appropriate, that is, the strategy chosen has the potential to facilitate task completion or problem resolution while considering constraints such as task requirements, time and resources available, and learners’ capabilities. Hence, the study adopts a micro-analytic approach to assessing the quality of strategy use. Thus, we aim to gain a more thorough understanding of the impact of specific strategies at the micro level of students’ actions. These insights are intended to guide the optimization of high-quality strategy use in student-centered learning environments.

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