Relations between the comprehension of connectives and school performance in primary school

Abstract

The comprehension of connectives, which still develops across primary school age, is an important facet of academic language proficiency. We investigated relations between the comprehension of connectives and school performance in primary school. Drawing on two cohorts with a total of 294 students and two measurement points either in Grades 2 and 3 (Cohort 1; n = 139) or in Grades 3 and 4 (Cohort 2; n = 155), we found positive effects of children's performance on a newly developed test on the comprehension of connectives on reading comprehension and mathematics one year later while considering, amongst others, the families' socioeconomic status, children's nonverbal cognitive abilities, and receptive grammar. Overall, data showed even more pronounced effects of the comprehension of connectives on test scores compared to school grades. Results are discussed with respect to the specific importance of the comprehension of connectives for school performance in primary school.