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Compensatory Strategies
A common set of communication devices involves compensation for missing knowledge. These are called “compensatory strategies”. We will elaborate here on three of them.
Typical of beginning-level learners, for example, is the memorization of certain phrases or sentences without internalized knowledge of their components. These memorized chunks of language, known as prefabricated patterns, include “on the way to”, “Nice to meet you”, “I don’t speak English.” Prefabricated patterns are sometimes the source of some fun. In my first days of Kikongo learning in Africa, I tried to say, in Kikongo, “I don’t know Kikongo” to those who attempted to converse with me; I later discovered that, instead of saying “Kizeyi Kikongo ko”, I had said “Kizoiele Kikongo ko” (I don’t like Kikongo).
Code-switching is the use of a first or third language within a stream of speech in the second language. Learners in the early stages of acquisition might code-switch—use their native language to fill in missing knowledge—whether the hearer knows that native language or not. Sometimes the learner slips in just a word or two, in the hope that the hearer will get the gist of what is being communicated.
Yet another common compensatory strategy is a direct appeal for help, often termed appeal to authority. Learners may, if stuck for a particular word or phrase, directly ask a proficient speaker or the teacher for the form (“How do you say ?”). Or they might venture a possible guess and then ask for verification from the proficient speaker. They might also appeal to a bilingual dictionary for help. The latter case can also produce some rather amusing situations. Once a student of English as a second language, when asked to introduce himself to the class and the teacher, said, “Allow me to introduce myself and tell you some of the ...” At this point he quickly got out his pocket dictionary and, finding the word he wanted, continued, “some of the headlights of my past.”
(H. Douglas Brown. Disponível em: Principles of language learning and teaching, 2006. Adaptado)
In the context of the third paragraph, the expression “get the gist of” means to