Learning is influenced by a combination of environmental conditions and factors within the learner. The environment provides opportunities, stimulation, language input, social interaction and educational experiences, but learners do not respond to these influences in exactly the same way. Individual learner factors such as age, aptitude, intelligence, motivation, personality, learning strategies, prior knowledge and emotional state play an important role in determining the nature and success of learning. The environment includes the family, school, teachers, peer groups, social surroundings and cultural context. A supportive environment can provide rich opportunities for learning. In language learning, for example, frequent exposure to meaningful language, interaction with competent speakers and encouragement from teachers can promote vocabulary development, comprehension and communication skills. However, the same environment may produce different learning outcomes among different learners because learners differ in their abilities, interests and experiences. Age is an important learner factor. Children generally have greater flexibility in acquiring pronunciation and certain aspects of language naturally through exposure and interaction. Older learners, however, may have advantages in areas such as conscious learning, reasoning and understanding grammatical rules. Thus, age interacts with environmental exposure rather than functioning independently of it. Aptitude refers to the learner's potential or ability to learn a particular skill. Some