An Empirical Study: Students′Comprehension of Logical Relations in Expository Texts
Hongmei Liu · Journal of Jiaying University · 2007
Success at university depends to a large extent on students′ability to read expository texts effectively in order to not only gain and understand information,but also pass an exam.An important component of the comprehension process is the reader′s ability to connect current information with information mentioned previously.One aspect of this text connecting process involves logical connectives.These are text devices that explicitly signal how chunks of information in a text are related to one another in a specific logical semantic relationship.This paper reports on findings from a study that investigated ESL students′ ability to connect information linked by illustrative,causal and adversative logical connectives during the reading of expository texts.The findings show a robust relationship between the ability to comprehend logical relations in expository text on the one hand,and academic performance and ESL proficiency levels on the other hand.In particular,the academically poor performers found causal and adversative relations challenging.