PT116.S1.P2.Q6 > Analytics

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In many bilingual communities of Puerto Rican Americans living in the mainland United States, people use both English and Spanish in a single conversation, alternating between them smoothly and frequently even within the same sentence. ████ █████████████████ ███████████████████ ██████ ██ █████████ ████████████ ███

Phenomenon · Code-switching

Puerto Rican Americans use both English and Spanish in a single conversation, smoothly alternating between them.

Explanation · Most instances of code-switching can be explained by situational or rhetorical factors

Some exceptional cases of code-switching cannot be explained.

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Explanation · Domains or social context determine whether code-switching occurs

Main factors are setting, participants, and topic which combine into five domains: family; friendship; religion; education; and employment.

Experimental Setup · To test effects of domains on code-switching

Researchers create hypothetical situations with 2 congruent factors or 2 incongruent factors. Then, researchers ask students to determine the third factor and which mixture of language they would use.

Results · 2 congruent factors

Prompted with participants: parent and child and topic: how to be a good son or daughter. Students chose setting as home and language was Spanish only.

Results · 2 incongruent factors

Prompted with participants: priest and parishioner and setting: beach, students disagreed on third factor and mix of language.

Exceptions · Unexplained code-switching

Sometimes the domain predictions about code-switching are wrong.

Example · One family at home

Family thought they spoke only English but they code-switched to Spanish (even when situational factors didn't change) to express certain attitudes like intimacy or humor more emphatically.

Passage Style

Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)

Single position

Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████

Question Type

Main point

The main point is best expressed at the end of P1: “in the vast majority of cases subtle factors, either situational or rhetorical, explain the use of code-switching.” The rest of the passage explores the situational or rhetorical factors that explain most cases of code-switching among Puerto Rican Americans.

The lives of ██████ █████ █████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ████ ██ ███████████████

This doesn’t capture the point that most cases of code-switching among Puerto Rican Americans are explained by situational or rhetorical factors. The passage focuses on describing these factors, so the main point should encompass them.

It is not ██████ ████████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████████ ██████ ██ █████████████ █████ ██████ █████ ██████████

This doesn’t capture the point that most cases of code-switching among Puerto Rican Americans are explained by situational or rhetorical factors. Although it’s true that code-switching isn’t always possible to explain, the author focuses on the cases that are possible to explain.

Rhetorical factors can ███████ ████ █████████ ██ ██████████████ █████ ██████ █████ █████████ ████ ███ ███████████ ████████

The author doesn’t suggest that the number of code-switching cases that rhetorical factors can explain is higher than the number explainable by situational factors. If anything, the author suggests situational factors might explain more instances.

Studies of bilingual ███████████ ██ ██████ █████ █████████ ████ ██████ █████████ ██ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ███████ █████ ███████████████

This doesn’t capture the point that most cases of code-switching among Puerto Rican Americans are explained by situational or rhetorical factors. Also, the author never suggests that linguists have changed their beliefs about code-switching.

Most code-switching among ██████ █████ █████████ ███ ██ █████████ ██ ██████ ███████████ ███ ██████████ ████████

This best captures the main point. The main point is expressed at the end of P1: “in the vast majority of cases subtle factors, either situational or rhetorical, explain the use of code-switching.” The rest of the passage explores the situational or rhetorical factors that explain most cases of code-switching among Puerto Rican Americans.

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PrepTest 116 - Section 1 - Passage 2 - Question 6

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