One benefit of learning to speak a language while learning

Question

One benefit of learning to speak a language while learning to read it  rather than separately  is that the student can more efficiently apply his or her knowledge in social settings.

A) rather than separately

B) rather than independently

C) instead of separately

D) instead of as separate processes

E) rather than in a separate process

GMAT 800

Answer:E But why?

esledge · Accepted Answer

Note the split between  rather than  and  instead of . They have nearly identical meaning, and the OG rarely even mentions this split as a deciding factor, usually only citing the fact that both require parallelism (i.e. in X rather than Y, X and Y must be parallel).

However,  rather than  is slightly more likely to be correct. Whether that is due to nuance and style is debatable, but there is an important grammar restriction on the use of  instead of : because  of  is a preposition, it must have a noun as its object.

So you CAN say:
I want chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla today.
Miguel decided to play guitar instead of drums.

But you SHOULDN'T say:
I walked to work instead of drove.
Miguel played guitar instead of drummed.

In choices (C) and (D), the  instead of  is incorrectly followed by an adverb and prepositional phrase, respectively.

In choices (A) and (B), it could be ok to follow  rather than  with adverbs. However, I think it is unclear what these adverbs modify (learning to speak separately? learning to speak a language separately? just learning separately, i.e. in a separate location?), and the parallelism is not great.

In (E), the parallelism between prepositional phrases  while learning to read it  and  in a separate process  makes the meaning much clearer. These are clearly two ways one would learn to speak a language.

Here are two similar examples:
In the talent show, Maya plans to whistle  while eating crackers  rather than  inside a tank of water .
(It's clear that Maya was considering two ways to whistle!)

In the talent show, Maya plans to whistle while eating crackers rather than loudly. 
(Not only is the parallelism poor (a grammar error itself), but the bad parallelism creates confusion about the intended meaning. What is "loudly"? The whistling? The cracker eating? the planning?)

aaba · Answer

"rather than" is preferred most of the time in gmat.
Both A and B use adverbs which modify a verb. However, we are looking for a modifier that supports the noun -> E remains.

Bunuel · Answer

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION:

The problem with the original sentence is separately. Separately is an adverb but in this context it's not clear exactly which verb it's modifying. (B) and (C) share the same problem. (D) and (E) both bring out the parallelism in the sentence, which you can see if you rewrite the sentence: "One benefit of learning to speak a language while learning to read it rather than as/in a separate process is...." You'll notice that (D) changes process to the plural processes and undermines the parallelism; the underlined portion should refer to only one process, that of learning to speak a language, in order to create a parallel alternative to while learning to read it. (E) wins.

ekanshgoyal · Answer

One benefit of learning to speak a language while learning to read it  rather than separately  is that the student can more efficiently apply his or her knowledge in social settings.

A) rather than separately

B) rather than independently

C) instead of separately

D) instead of as separate processes

E) rather than in a separate process

The answer is still unclear to me. Someone please guide.

arbazfatmi1994 · Answer

1. Separately and independently are adverbs - They need a verb (antecedent) 
 
A and B can be eliminated

2. Instead is not preferred in GMAT - get rid of C and D 
 
 3. E presents nice parallelism - It's correct

One benefit of learning to speak a language while learning

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

One benefit of learning to speak a language while learning

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards