Learning strategies are an integral part of learning in each school subject, including foreign languages.

The first research study on second language learning strategies was conducted by Rubin (1975). Later on, Wenden and Rubin (1987, p. 19)  defined learning strategies as "any sets of operations, steps, plans, routines used by the learner to facilitate the obtaining, storage, retrieval, and use of information".  According to Richards and Platts (1992, p. 209), learning strategies make understanding and comprehension of language instruction easier and are a part of intentional behaviour. Chamot and O'Malley (1990, p. 5; 2006, p. 5) regard strategies especially as tools for self-regulated learning. Oxford (1989, p. 8) defines learning strategies as "specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective and more transferrable to new situations". She distinguishes six groups of foreign language learning strategies (FLLS): the direct strategies - memory strategies, cognitive strategies and compensation strategies and the indirect - strategies metacognitive strategies, affective strategies and social strategies. This typology is applied in our research.  
In research on learning strategies, questionnaires are the most used method of data collection. We use the Language Strategy Use Survey by Cohen, Oxford and Chi (2002) created within the concept of Style-and Strategies-Based Instruction (SSBI) of Cohen and Weaver (2006, p. 3), which we used in our research. This questionnaire focuses primarily on English language students for whom English is not the mother tongue. The questionnaire examines the FLLS in the context of the 4 language skills (listening, writing, reading and speaking) and two linguistic aspects (vocabulary, translation). The aim of our research (Vlčková & Přikrylová, 2010a, b) was to measure the use of foreign language learning strategies by pupils and the support of strategy use by teacher. 

In this paper, we present the results concerning pupils´ use of FLLS and the teacher´s support of pupils´ FLLS. The research was carried out at grammar schools (comprehensive upper secondary level of education - ISCED 3) in 2011. Out of 914 respondents 901 were pupils and 13 were teachers (teachers of student respondents). 

Research questions concerned three areas:

×          The use of the strategies by pupils

×          The support of the strategies by teachers

×          The relation between the FLLS use (pupils) and the support (teachers)

In the third area, we formulated the following hypotheses:

H1: The more the teacher supports pupils´ foreign language learning strategies, the more pupils use them.

H1.1: The more the teacher supports pupils´ foreign language learning strategies for particular skills or linguistic aspects, the more the pupils use them.

H1.2: The more the teacher supports pupils´ foreign learning strategies according to Oxfords´ 6 groups of strategies, the more the pupils use them.

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