We can conclude that L1 learning at the level of elementary school is promoted by the following associations: conscientiousness and emotional stability to strengthen basic skills; openness to acquire pragmatic skills; and both conscientiousness and openness to develop important communicative strategies. These findings are in line with earlier research (see Eisenberg, 1997). In contrast, L2 learning at this age appears to depend primarily on openness to experience and, to a lesser extent, conscientiousness in building basic and pragmatic skills and monitoring strategies. Given the crucial role of openness to experience in the processes of both L1 and L2 acquisition, a social network approach can be viewed as very promising for both understanding and promoting L2 learning. There is clear evidence from the literature that some sort of integrative motivation influences L2 development. Children who display a great desire to belong to and identify with target language speaking peers tend to make the best progress in L2 learning (Larsen-Freeman & Long, 1991; McLaughlin, 1985). It can be hypothesized that openness to experience will facilitate such integrative processes. Learners who find it easy to interact will have a greater number of the social contacts needed for language learning than learners who are less able to manage such social contacts (Wong-Fillmore, 1991). It is interesting to note that extraversion is positively related to the strategic competence of both L1 and L2 learners but negatively related to their organizational competence. This suggests that more extraverted learners may generally find strategies to compensate for limited language skills more easily than introverted learners, although further research along these lines is needed.An important implication of the present findings is that the organizational, pragmatic, and strategic skills of children should all be assessed in order to gain greater insight into their language development. With the evaluation of the communicative competence of a child from a broad perspective, moreover, the teacher can monitor the influence of one component of the child’s communicative competence on the other components. Earlier research, for example, has shown organizational competence to be a necessary but not sufficient condition for effective communication (cf. Ellis, 1994; Swain & Canale, 1982). In order to better understand and explain the individual differences often observed in communicative competence, moreover, it is important that learner variables such as the different dimensions of personality be assessed. Personality traits can be seen as dynamic but nevertheless relatively stable dispositions and indicators of personal needs. In addition, only with clear specification of how the components of communicative competence interact with different dimensions of personality can the process of language teaching be optimally geared to the needs of the individual learner.