Conjunctions facilitate text cohesion and comprehension by making explicit the logical relationships between ideas in written language. Conjunctions may be challenging for English language learners (ELLs) because of their novel, abstract, and text-connecting role. In this longitudinal study we aimed to clarify the connections among comprehension of logical relationships, general vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension in elementary school-aged ELLs. We assessed these skills—along with decoding, working memory, and nonverbal reasoning—in 74 ELLs in Grades 3 and 4. Path analysis revealed that comprehension of logical relationships was a direct predictor of concurrent reading skills in Grades 3 and 4, and an indirect predictor of reading comprehension in Grade 4, where vocabulary and prior comprehension performance acted as partial mediators. Results point to the confluence of general vocabulary with conjunctions in contributing to individual differences in ELLs’ reading comprehension. Conjunctions represent a specialized form of vocabulary knowledge that should not be subsumed developmentally or instructionally under general vocabulary knowledge.

中文翻译：

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英语学习者对说明性文本逻辑关系的理解：通用词汇和文本连接功能融合的证据

连词通过明确书面语言中思想之间的逻辑关系来促进文本的衔接和理解。连词对于英语学习者 (ELL) 来说可能具有挑战性，因为它们具有新颖、抽象和文本连接的作用。在这项纵向研究中，我们旨在阐明小学生 ELL 的逻辑关系理解、一般词汇知识和阅读理解之间的联系。我们在 74 名 3 年级和 4 年级的 ELL 中评估了这些技能——以及解码、工作记忆和非语言推理。 4 年级阅读理解的预测因子，其中词汇和先前的理解能力充当部分中介。结果表明，一般词汇与连词的融合导致了 ELL 阅读理解的个体差异。连词代表一种特殊形式的词汇知识，不应在发展或教学上归入一般词汇知识。