The first research question is interesting because L1 learners set the “norm” for what 12-year-olds know. On the basis of previous research, we predict the L2 learners will lag behind their monolingual peers on measures of organizational competence but not on pragmatic and strategic measures or personality measures. With respect to the second question, we expect to find evidence for a three-factor representation of communicative competence, referring to similar grammatical, pragmatic, and strategic abilities in the L1 and L2. As regards the third question, our prediction is that consciousness and stability primarily relate to aspects of communicative competence in L1 and L2. Earlier studies showed conscientiousness and emotional stability to relate to the development of grammatical competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence (see Ellis, 1994; Eisenberg, 1997). For L2 learners, we also expect a substantial contribution from personality aspects facilitating contact with peers, such as agreeableness, extraversion, and openness to experience. From previous studies we know that particularly the acquisition of the pragmatic aspects of communicative competence is dependent on such personality characteristics (cf. R. Ellis, 1985; Erickson & Omark, 1981; Larsen–Freeman & Long, 1991; Rivera, 1984; Wong–Fillmore, 1991).STUDY DESIGNSubjectsA group of 213 children was recruited from the 6th grades of 12 different schools in three industrial cities in the southern part of The Netherlands. Some 20–60% of each class consisted of minority group members. All of the children selected for inclusion in the study came from working-class families. A total of 144 children were native Dutch speakers; the other 69 children were nonnative speakers of Dutch of a primarily Turkish or Moroccan background (46). Half of the children were boys and half were girls. All of the children had attended a Dutch school since kindergarten. The age of the children ranged from 11;5 to 13;6, and the mean was 12;4.