Rather than viewing youth as an isolated and alienated subculture, it is more useful to view the needs of youth as largely determined by where and how they live, and to recognize that they differ from one another just as adults do. Professionals and volunteers in community youth programs need to understand how the youth they work with experience…

This digest discusses the contextual factors that affect students' learning of a second language. These individual, social, and societal factors can be considered from the perspective of the language, the learner, and the learning process. These perspectives are discussed as they relate to learning any second language, with a particular focus on…