#11 - Linguist: Some people have understood certain studies

[cboles]

I was between C and E for this question. The reason I chose C is because I didn't see it as a problem of bilingualism (as stated in E) but more of a problem with the conceptual map. Where did I go wrong in this?

[Claire Horan]

Hi cboles,

"Certain studies" suggest that bilingualism in children causes a reduced "conceptual map," so trying to distinguish between answers based on one or the other "being the problem" is not going to do the trick.

These types of problems require you to apply the very general descriptions to specific parts of the stimulus. I will show you what I mean using answer choices C and E.

(C) offering evidence that undermines the use of any vocabulary test to provide information about a child’s conceptual map

To test whether answer choice (C) describes the argument, I need to look for "evidence" mentioned in the argument. The evidence of differential results between single-language and dual-language tests undermines the use of single-language vocabulary tests with bilingual children. However, the use of "any vocabulary test" on "a child" is not undermined by this evidence. A dual-language test might be just fine for a bilingual child. A monolingual child's single-language test results would not be flawed.

So the descriptions didn't quite match what is going on in the stimulus. Now let's try (E).

(E) pointing out a methodological error in the technique used to obtain the purported evidence of a problem with bilingualism.

What is the "methodological error?" That would be the choice of giving a single-language vocabulary test to a bilingual child. And this technique (the single-language test) was used to obtain the evidence that bilingual children had a smaller vocabulary and, hence, a reduced "conceptual map."

With this type of problem, several answer choices must sound appealing, and it's essential that you precisely map the general labels onto the argument.