The text reports a study that found that bilingual children in the U.S. and the U.K. scored lower on standardized tests than did monolingual English-speaking children. However, this result was suspect because:
A) the study did not take into account the socioeconomic level of the children's families
B) the children were highly intelligent to begin with
C) the second language was Japanese, which is a very difficult language for English-speakers to learn
D) the bilingual children were older than the children who learned only English

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The study did not control for the socioeconomic level of the children's families, which is known to be a strong predictor of academic achievement. Therefore, the lower scores of bilingual children may be due to other factors related to socioeconomic status rather than bilingualism itself. The other options are not relevant to the issue at hand.

The Text Reports a Study That Found That Bilingual Children