Self-study
In many families adults speak to babies in simplified language. ███ ██████████ █████████ ██████ ███████ ████ █████ ██████ ███ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ █████ ████ ██ ████████ ██ ████████ █ █████████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ █████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ████████ ██████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ████████ ███
Summary
The author concludes that repeating simple phrases to babies doesn’t give children any extra help in learning a language.
Why does the author think this?
Because some families don’t speak to babies in this simplified manner, and the children in these families master the grammatical structure of language just as well and quickly as other children who are spoken to in a simplified manner do.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that that if repeating simple phrases doesn’t help with mastering grammatical structure, then it cannot help with learning a language.
The author assumes that the reason children who are taught with simplified language don’t master the grammatical structure of language any better or faster than the children who are not taught with simplified language must be that simplified language doesn’t help one master grammatical structure. (This overlooks other explanations — for example, maybe the kind of children who are not taught with simplified language tend to be the children who are already more gifted with a language, so parents don’t think they need to use more simplified language with these children.)
18.
Which one of the following ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ████████
a
Babies pay no █████ █████████ ██ ██████ ███████ ████ ██████ ███████████ ███████████
Not necessary, because even if babies DO pay extra attention to phrases with simple grammatical structures, we still know that children taught without simplified language master grammatical structures just as well and as quickly as those who aren’t taught with those methods. What matters is the efficacy of simple phrases in helping one learn grammatical structure and language, not whether they draw more attention from babies.
b
Speaking to babies ██ ██████████ ████████ █████ ██████ █████ ████████ █████████
Not necessary, because the author’s conclusion is only that simplified language doesn’t help; that doesn’t require the author to think simplified language hurts language learning.
c
Any child who ███ ████████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ██ █ ████████ ███ ███████ ███ █████████
Necessary, because if it were not true — if some children who have mastered the grammatical structure of a language have NOT learned the language — then the fact that simplified language does not seem to improve mastery of grammatical structure would not establish that it doesn’t help one learn language. The negation of (C) opens the possibility that there are other ways simplified language could benefit learning of language even if it doesn’t help mastery of grammatical structure.
d
Many linguists believe ████ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████████ █████ ███ ██████ █████ █████████
Not necessary, because what many linguists believe is irrelevant. The content of linguists’ belief has no effect on the reasoning, because thea argument isn’t based on what linguists believe.
e
To learn a ████████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████████
Not necessary, because (E) arguably weakens if assumed. (E) asserts that there’s something else required in order to learn a language — that opens the possibility simplified language might help with that other aspect of language learning, even if it doesn’t help with mastery of grammatical structure.