QUESTION TEXT: Linguist: Some people have understood certain studies…
QUESTION TYPE: Method of Reasoning
CONCLUSION: The studies that showed bilingual children have smaller vocabularies were flawed.
REASONING: Bilingual children often know a word in only one of their two languages. The tests were only given in one language.
ANALYSIS: This is a good argument, assuming that we can say a child knows a word if they know it in one but not both of their languages.
The argument proceeds by showing an error in the in the studies: the vocabulary tests were unilingual.
___________
- The argument hasn’t said bilingualism is an advantage. It just concluded against the idea that bilingualism had been shown to be a disadvantage.
- There was no inconsistency. There was just an error in how the tests were done. An inconsistency is a contradiction, and not all errors are contradictions.
- Not all vocabulary tests are flawed. Dual-use tests can adequately measure a bilingual child’s vocabulary.
- The studies found disadvantages to bilingualism. This answer choice got that wrong: it says advantages.
- CORRECT. The methodological error was that the vocabulary tests were only in one language.
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