Common Ground between Form and Content: The Pragmatic Solution to the Bootstrapping Problem

The frame of reference for this article is second or foreign language (L2 or FL) acquisition, but the pragmatic bootstrapping hypothesis applies to language processing and acquisition in any context or modality. It is relevant to teaching children to read. It shows how connections between target language surface forms and their content can be made accessible to learners. Although some theories (e.g., structuralism and universal grammar) and methods (e.g., explicit grammar-instruction and audiolingualism) have emphasized form, other theories (e.g., usage-based, connectionism, and emergentism) and methods (e.g., content-based and natural language acquisition) have stressed content. Logic and empirical evidence point to the middling common ground where form and content are pragmatically (cognitively and socially) linked. There is growing agreement and empirical evidence that developing proficiency in any language, or modality, depends on access to the dynamic referential relations between target forms and particular persons, things, events, and relations in the world of experience. If these arguments are correct, language teaching can benefit by providing access not only to targeted language forms, but to the dynamic referential relations that link those forms with particular content in authentic contexts of communication.