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Chapter 7 CONCLUSION ——o— This chapter summarizes the main findings of the present research project, followed by the pedagogical and theoretical implications of the findings. Finally, possible directions for further research are outlined, along with the limitations of the research project. 7.1 THE MAIN FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT The research project adopted a mixed methods research design, which meant that both qualitative and quantitative methods were combined in order to map the context of EFL learning through EE activities at the secondary education level in Hungary. Another important feature of the research was that the different research phases (Study One, Study Two, and Study Three) informed each other, i.e., the results of the different phases were not only related to each other, but all research instruments were designed and prepared based on the results of the studies preceding them within the framework of this project. The results of this research aim to fill an important research gap by adding findings to the very little such research in Hungary (cf. Lajtai 2020), in this way contributing to a better understanding of EFL learning through EE activities. The main aim of the research was, on the one hand, to map Hungarian secondary school students’ EE interests and, on the other hand, to examine the impact of these EE activities on the different foreign language learning individual variables. The exploration of these relationships was carried out using different statistical methods (inferential statistics). In the following sections, the main findings of this research project are presented for each research question. RQ1 What extramural English activities do Hungarian secondary school EFL learners engage in? Hungarian secondary school students’ EE interests were examined using both qualitative and quantitative methods. As I did not have any insights into the + 139 +
