ABSTRACT
The development of language competencies depends on numerous individual and social conditions, which explain this development on different levels. However, it is important to bear in mind a number of conceptual and methodological difficulties and intricacies entailed in such an endeavor. This applies in particular to the conceptual nature of the interrelation of concepts incorporated in one’s respective models. In addition, it has to be discussed whether the explanation of linguistic development requires special considerations that other (psychological) phenomena do not require (e.g., the influence of linguistic differences between languages). These challenges ask not only for methodological and theoretical rigor but for a multidisciplinary approach. Taken together, the contributions of the present volume can be seen as a convincing plea for an integrative developmental science of language acquisition.
