research prospectus

For the past few weeks I have immersed myself in articles regarding revision and ESL speakers. A few things have stuck out for me. Firstly, the research I have seen so far has focused mainly on how secondary actors such as writing center tutors, peers in class, and teachers affect the revision process. I have not seen anything so far on how the ESL writers themselves approach the revision process. Also interesting is that most of the research subjects that I have seen are Asian. Very little has been done on Spanish speakers. I am thinking maybe I need to look in the ERIC database, one I have not consulted thus far.

I must admit that the lack of studies about Spanish speakers does surprise me. I suspect that researchers are more interested in English language development in terms of speaking and reading. Perhaps writing is not a priority for them. I am almost tempted to follow through on this thesis project for my Master's, because I believe that helping the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population develop proficiency in writing is vitally important, and frankly I am disappointed that so far the research community has not devoted much attention to it.