The present study offers a model of second language learning and examines aspects of the model in two experiments with high school students learning French. The model describes learning in terms of three parameters - learning processes, learning strategies, and learner characteristics. These three parameters together may be used to explain both the general process of second language learning as well as discrepancies in the competence achieved by particular language learners. In the first experiment, the relationship between individual learner characteristics and achievement is examined. Attitude and the use of certain learning strategies prove to be the most important predictors of proficiency. The second experiment investigates more precisely the role of inferencing, one of the learning strategies hypothesized in the model, in language learning. The opportunity to inference was found to improve reading comprehension scores. The results of both experiments are interpreted in terms of the model and suggestions for further research are discussed. (Author)