ABSTRACT
One of the most widely recognized facts about second language learning is that some individuals are more successful in learning a second language than other individuals. In this chapter, we examine some of the factors that may be responsible for these differences, focusing in particular on nonlanguage factors, such as age, aptitude, motivation, attitude, and socio-psychological influences. In addition to some learners being more successful language learners, there is also the well-known phenomenon of fossilization, which has been part of the field of SLA since the middle part of the 20th Century. It could even be argued that the field of second language acquisition was spurred into existence by this phenomenon. That is, the idea that no matter what the learners do, they will always ‘be stuck’ in the second language at some distance from the expected target. The phenomenon of ‘being stuck’ in the L2 seems to occur to most if not all learners even at the most advanced stages.1
