Nadine Wilhelm empirically investigates how language competence affects the processing of mathematical word problems. Building on the fundamental distinction between the communicative and cognitive functions of language, she not only analyzes reading difficulties but also employs multifaceted cognitive psychological and mathematics educational approaches to describe the processing of word problems. This results in a comprehensive and theoretically grounded overview of language-related barriers, which relativizes simple explanatory approaches by highlighting the complex relationships between linguistic and conceptual obstacles.