1. There are several factors that influence how successfully students learn a new language, including social context, relationship between the first and second languages, age, aptitude, motivation, and amount of input and interaction in the second language. 2. Younger learners generally have an advantage in learning a second language due to brain plasticity, while older learners have advantages in learning capacity, analytical ability, and knowledge of their first language. 3. Individual differences in abilities like auditory processing, pattern recognition, and memory storage also affect how successfully students acquire a second language. Motivation is also key, as it determines how much effort students put into language learning.