Cognitive Skills Involved in Reading Comprehension of Adolescents with Low Educational Opportunities
, Gisela MartÃnez 1, Daniel M. Low 3 and Jesica Formoso 2Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The author(s)' goal was to examine a specific segment of the adolescent population -- those with low educational opportunities -- to see what factors are related to reading comprehension ability. They found that decoding non-words, vocabulary, and verbal inhibition explain approximately 50% of the variance in reading comprehension.
This manuscript could benefit from two types of revision: 1) a discussion and clear statement about how this research constitutes an advance over prior research, especially with respect to the role of educational opportunities; and 2) Thorough editing to bring the writing into acceptable form. If the product of revision 1) yields a substantial advance, then I think the paper should be published.
Author Response
We have analyzed the thoughtful comments made by reviewers and have incorporated all points into our manuscript, and we respond to each comment in turn.
Reviewer 1 comments:
The author(s)' goal was to examine a specific segment of the adolescent population -- those with low educational opportunities -- to see what factors are related to reading comprehension ability. They found that decoding non-words, vocabulary, and verbal inhibition explain approximately 50% of the variance in reading comprehension.
This manuscript could benefit from two types of revision: 1) a discussion and clear statement about how this research constitutes an advance over prior research, especially with respect to the role of educational opportunities; and 2) Thorough editing to bring the writing into acceptable form. If the product of revision 1) yields a substantial advance, then I think the paper should be published.
Response:
We agree we should further clarify how our study advances previous work. We have added a paragraph to the Discussion where we highlight the role of educational opportunities as the reviewer correctly suggests along with how this study is particularly pressing given it is done with Spanish-speaking highschool students in Latin America.
Moreover, one of the co-authors, a native English speaker, has re-revised the manuscript and has made further edits throughout to improve clarity.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Page 1--line 9---remove at the
Page 2---Sentence 1--remove or; add comma after instruction; add comma after it; and delete on the other hand it
Page 4---line 28---change underlie to underline
Page 4---Line 37--change present to presently
Author Response
Reviewer 2 comments:
Page 1 (line 9) remove “at the”
Page 2 (Sentence 1) remove “or”; add comma after instruction; add comma after it; and delete on the other hand it
Page 4 (line 28) change “underlie” to “underline”
Page 4 (Line 37) change “present” to “presently”
Response:
The sentences in question have been edited following the reviewers suggestions and the rest of the manuscript has been re-revised by a native English speaker.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
In the paragraph added to address my concern about how this research constitutes an advance over prior research, the authors discuss a) what other researchers have done, b) that their work goes beyond prior work, and c) that the work is very important. This paragraph would be even stronger if they made a simple statement about how, specifically, their work constitutes an advance over prior work in this area.
Author Response
Thank you for encouraging us to specifically state what is novel about our study with regards to prior work. By taking a closer look at the most similar previous studies, we realized that while Jiménez and De Cadena (2007) compared a sample from a developing country (Guatemala) with a sample from a developed country (Spain), they did not isolate a low socioeconomic group in their study and they state this as a limitation. We rephrase our previous statement, clarify differences, and state specifically what is novel about our study. Thank you again.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
