This document discusses factors that influence second language learning, including learners' characteristics, environments, and contexts of learning. It examines differences between a young child learning a first language versus an adult immigrant learning a second language. Key factors discussed include cognitive maturity, metalinguistic awareness, exposure to modified input, classroom versus immersion environments, and the influence of learners' first languages. The document also summarizes research on interlanguage development, errors, sequences of grammatical morpheme acquisition, and influences on vocabulary, pragmatics, and phonology development.