Constructing language: a framework for explaining acquisition

2025/06/24 by Caroline F. Rowland, Gert Westermann, Anna Theakston +3 · 1 voice · 3 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Language Development and Disorders #Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism #Reading and Literacy Development

paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2025.05.015

openalex publication_date 2025/06/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15

Abstract

Explaining how children build a language system is a central goal of research in language acquisition, with broad implications for language evolution, adult language processing, and artificial intelligence (AI). Here, we propose a constructivist framework for future theory-building in language acquisition. We describe four components of constructivism, drawing on wide-ranging evidence to argue that theories based on these components will be well suited to explaining developmental change. We show how adopting a constructivist framework both provides plausible answers to old questions (e.g., how children build linguistic representations from their input) and generates new questions (e.g., how children adapt to the affordances provided by different cultures and languages).

Citations

• Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development.
• Reclaiming AI as a Theoretical Tool for Cognitive Science
• Statistical Learning by 8-Month-Old Infants
• First-language acquisition in a multimodal language framework: Insights from speech, gesture, and sign
• Caregivers Use Joint Attention to Support Sign Language Acquisition in Deaf Children

Cited by

• Large language models are not about natural language
• Are Language Models Models?
• Advancing the Multimodal Language Acquisition Framework Through Collaborative Dialogue

Discussions

• Constructing language: A framework for explaining acquisition. Final version by @carorowland.bsky.social & al. doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2025.05.015 [bsky, 12 points, 0 comments]

Related

• A Philosophical Introduction to Language Models -- Part I: Continuity With Classic Debates
• Models of human learning should capture the multimodal complexity and communicative goals of the natural learning environment
• On the Computational Modeling of Meaning: Embodied Cognition Intertwined with Emotion
• A Theory of Language Learning
• Language learning as language use: A cross-linguistic model of child language development.