Emergentism in SLA roughly falls into two schools， namely， empiricist emergentism and nativist emergentism． This paper reviews the recent developments of emergentism， including the tenets of each school， the doubts cast by the generative linguists， and the responses from the emergentists． The results show that emergentism， especially empiricist emergentism， has done little in the study of core linguistic phenomena， which have been the main concern of generative grammar． The acquisition of complex constructions by first and second language learners also poses a threat to its claim that language acquisition is construction-based and cumulative， developing from chunks of collocations to low-scope pattern that finally become complex syntax． Therefore， emergentism needs to strengthen itself in investigating core linguistic phenomena and their acquisition． To this end， research methods need to be improved by combining new computer technology and traditional instruments．