Language learning strategies and motivation are an intriguing research area in second language acquisition. The results of many research efforts do not only push the field forward in a theoretical sense, but especially in a practical one. In other words, both language learning strategies and motivation are changeable factors that can be acted upon, which makes them extremely vivid and powerful allies of the learner in the process of foreign language learning. The fact that individual differences research findings are applicable in real life gives the research an additional humanistic dimension which is so often driven by the researchers' wish to make this world a better place (at least a little bit), be it by giving advice to learners who do not know how to learn a foreign language, or by helping teachers who seem to be losing control and who cannot objectively see their own mistakes in the teaching process and keep asking themselves why the students dislike their subject. The present study was partly motivated by similar questions and issues in the language learning and teaching process in Croatia. The study was carried out in order to describe the relationship between language learning strategies, motivation and communicative competence in a secondary school population of learners of German and English as foreign languages. The first five chapters present the theoretical background of individual learner characteristics, the role of strategies and motivation in relevant theories and models, as well as a research review. The present study is decribed in detail in the sixth chapter. The use of language learning strategies and motivation were assessed by means of two questionnaires. Communicative competence was assessed by means of insight into the outcomes of a standardized language test carried out by the National Centre for the External Evaluation of Education. The data were analyzed by means of the following statistical procedures: factor analysis, oneway analysis of variance and correlational analysis. The results indicated an interesting association between language learning strategies, motivation and communicative competence with the context proving to be more than a passive background variable. Moreover, the context seems to be a highly active factor interacting with all the main variables and at the same time serving as a frame in which all the variables interact. According to our expectations, many statistically significant results were obtained between the two groups of learners, for example for the use of certain types of language learning strategies, the level of motivational intensity and communicative competence. Research findings also indicate an extremely important role of language use in learning a foreign language which seems to be best decribed by a frequent use of communicative-metacognitive strategies that seem to have a dual function, that of learning strategies as well as self-motivational strategies. In accordance with the research findings the so-called model of communicative self-regulation is proposed, with an emphasis on the learners' proactiveness in order to further clarify the role of language learning strategies, motivation and other motivational factors involved in the process of foreign language learning. Finally, possible implications for pedagogical practice are discussed with the aim to facilitate the process of foreign language learning and teaching in Croatia.