The challenge of psychological processes in language acquisition: A systematic review

Abstract

Understanding how humans acquire or learn a language has been controversial in various disciplines. Most vigorously, psychologists and linguists have been struggling with models that would represent the processing and development of language. The current literature carries many models, making it formidable for the researchers to heed the appropriate approach. A review of the most salient models could provide enlightenment on such bewildering concerns. To this aim, this systematic review paper compares the most reliable and practical models and discusses their salience. By highlighting the requirements of a functional model to be partially universal, we raise issues for a more compelling model that would encompass areas of first and second language acquisition.

Keywords:

• Psychological processes
• learning
• meaning across languages
• perception
• first language
• second language

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the anonymous reviewer for the constructive comments that led to the development of the article. The authors also thank Zahra Eskandari and Afsane Askari for proof-reading the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the NTNU.