Views of revision and its role in writing have changed dramatically over the last two decades. This article first presents a historical perspective on revision and suggests a contemporary definition of revision. Next, it reviews research methods for examining revision. The evolving methods mirror the recent reconceptualization of revision by enabling investigation of the following: meaningful revision activity, not just editorial actions; the revision process as well as the revision products; and revision as it occurs at several points in writing. Findings from research on revision are synthesized, conclusions about the results are given, and limitations of the research are examined.
An integrative review of United States research on English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners’ cognitive reading processes suggested that, on the whole, ESL readers recognized cognate vocabulary fairly well, monitored their comprehension and used many metacognitive strategies, used schema and prior knowledge to affect comprehension and recall, and were affected differently by different types of text structures. In the main, where United States ESL readers’ processes appeared to be used differently from those of native English readers, the differences were in speed and depressed activation of selected processes. Significantly, overall, the findings from the studies suggested a relatively good fit to preexisting reading theories and views generally thought to describe native-language readers. However, the quantitative differences between processes of ESL readers and those of native English readers indicated that the preexisting theories and views might need to be revisited and elaborated to address a subset of factors special to ESL learners.
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