The following literature review is built upon analyzing past research about language development practices in social studies. The literature review focuses on methods, opportunities, and challenges within language development practice in social studies which are analyzed from a selection of research relevant to the subject. All research used in the study is published after 2010 and peer reviewed or reviewed while undergoing the process of writing licentiate- or doctorate dissertations. The first section of the results section explains methods and opportunities for language development. Methods and opportunities that were prominent are verbal and written practices both teacher-oriented and student engaging, variation in reading materials, everyday language to subject specific language and focus on subject specific concepts to further language development. The second section of the results explains challenges in language development which include inexperience in language development practices, insufficient previous knowledge in students’ language, time pressure in teaching and difficult subject specific text materials. Language development teaching gives important tools to teachers for developing language with their students, which is especially important in social studies because of its nature of complex language standards.