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Schooling and Language Minority Students: A
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vironment in second language acquisition’
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Education, vol. 163. Newbury House.

Maureen S. Andrade and Norman W. Evans: PRINCIPLES AND

PRACTICES FOR RESPONSE IN SECOND LANGUAGE WRITING:
DEVELOPING SELF-REGULATED LEARNERS. Routledge, 2013.

Mastery of writing skills is considered a challenge for many learners includ-

ing those with English as their first language. It is not that writing is difficult
in itself; rather, a lack of adequately relevant and motivating instruction and
response by the teacher can lead to challenges. It can be liberating for
teachers to have a source supplying instructional strategies to eliminate
learners’ writing problems (Harris et al. 2006). This volume is a valuable
 REVIEWS 235

publication offering practical guidelines for language teachers to teach lear-

ners to become self-regulated writers. The book nicely blends self-regulated
learning (SRL) theory [as ‘a new perspective to long-standing feedback prac-
tices’ in L2 writing (p. viii)] with the process of general language learning,
including L2 writing. The volume aims to develop autonomous learning and
assist ‘language learners [to] develop skills and strategies that will allow
them to continue learning and improving long after they leave our class-
rooms’ (ibid.) by instructing language teachers (and in particular writing
instructors) on how to provide (corrective) feedback in the most effective
manner.

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The book is a volume in ESL and Applied Linguistics Professional Series edited by
Eli Hinkel and consists of nine chapters (of which, Chapters 2–7 introduce six
dimensions/principles or primary tenets of self-regulated learning theory), an
appendix, in which a list of activities used for practicing the theory are sum-
marized, as well as an authoritative list of references. A detailed subject/author
index concludes the book. Each chapter is written in a reader-friendly style,
beginning with a list of objectives, proceeding with definitions of relevant
concepts such as principles of self-regulated learning, learning methods, etc.,
the applications of these principles to L2 learning and writing pedagogy, prac-
tical activities, and advice for implementing SRL in writing, and ending with a
chapter summary.
Setting the scene for the volume, Chapter 1, ‘Response to Second Language
Writing and Principles of Self-Regulated Learning’, discusses the history of
response to writing in first and second language contexts with specific refer-
ence to the self-regulated learning principles. In particular, Andrade and Evans
clarify issues related to providing feedback to L2 writers and identify the key
six dimensions of self-regulated learning (i.e. motive, methods of learning,
time factors, physical environment, social environment, and performance) as
a framework for response. These six dimensions form the framework for the
book, with one chapter devoted to each.
The principle of ‘motive’ and its application to L2 writing forms the back-
bone of Chapter 2 and is generally based on attribution theory, which empha-
sizes the strong influence learners’ self-perceptions exert on their current
interpretations of success or failure and therefore impact their future
attempts to perform similar tasks. To help learners become self-regulated wri-
ters by means of improving their motivation, the authors provide a range of
pedagogical practices and learner activities. In Chapter 3, the writers highlight
the concept of ‘methods of learning’ by providing key instructional practices in
guiding and responding to writing in an attempt to assist learners to utilize
learning strategies. Regarding the strategies associated with teacher response,
the authors concur with Harmer (2004) who believes that ‘teachers should
intervene with editorial comment, motivating suggestions, or language advice’
(p. 108) to lead to both short-term and long-term enhancement in writing. To
become self-regulated writers, learners are recommended to resort to a variety
236 REVIEWS

of strategies at all stages of writing, such as ‘improving ability to draft and

revise’, ‘developing strategies for using form-focused teacher response’, ‘iden-
tifying preferences for types of feedback’, and so forth (pp. 48–65). Chapter 4
discusses the principle of ‘time’ by dividing it into the self-regulatory skills of
‘time management’ and ‘procrastination avoidance’. This chapter shares the
relevant pedagogical guidelines and activities informed by these two concepts
to help learners regulate their use of time. Chapter 5 is intended to answer the
question of ‘what physical elements disrupt concentration, causing learners to
refocus attention’ in their writing process (p. 86), with an intent to help less
experienced writers to gain a good sense of ‘what constitutes a suitable writing

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environment’ for them (p. 89). The next principle of self-regulated learning,
namely ‘social environment’, is discussed in Chapter 6 to foreground the sig-
nificance of social sources in ‘effective interaction and communication in the
writing process’, ‘seeking, finding and evaluating help’, ‘considering interper-
sonal factors’, and ‘effective negotiation of meaning’ (pp. 104–125).
Performance as the last principle of SRL is introduced in Chapter 7, which
offers a variety of pedagogical activities facilitating learners’ use of performance
to improve their writing skills.
Whereas the previous chapters present pedagogical practices, activities,
and approaches with regard to the six SRL principles, Chapter 8 explores the
implementation of these activities throughout the course of study by means of
a curriculum plan. In so doing, different implementation options are intro-
duced and then a variety of activities from Chapters 2 to 7 are reiterated. The
last chapter of the book presents some of the activities from Chapters 2 to 7
that may need modifications to account for the teacher, learner, and situ-
ational constraints.
The significant contribution of this book is the introduction of self-regulated
learning theory and research into the L2 writing context which has not
been carried out before. In agreement with other scholars (e.g. Zimmerman
and Schunk 2001; Nota et al. 2004), the authors of the book promote the idea
that academic achievement of learners is closely related to their self-regulated
capacities. The book is written in a very clear and accessible language
throughout, is easy to understand, up to date, and very informative. A particular
strength of the book is its provision of practical classroom activities including a
total number of 90 activities in Chapters 2 to 7. The authors, however, acknow-
ledge the difficulty of managing all these activities and suggest that teachers be
consistent in the approach selected, and encourage them to allow options for
learners in order to overcome the overwhelming workload.
There are some caveats though which need to be considered by readers.
First, for larger classes, more hours of instruction must be available for SRL
activities to be spaced through the course. However, managing these large
number of writing activities can be onerous even though Whyte (2011) rec-
ognizes that more hours of instruction is unlikely to be forthcoming in the
educational system of numerous countries. Although authors suggest some
explications in Chapter 9 of the book to relieve teachers from this constraint,
 REVIEWS 237

it seems that the integration of a hybrid learning method where both face-to-
face and online instructions are combined can offer a more acceptable solution
to this challenge.
Another area of concern is that some of the activities in the book may not be
easy to be utilized by novice teachers who have not received any relevant
training. Experienced teachers, on the other hand, need to have more hours
of preparation before entering the writing classroom informed by SRL activities.
Another problem relates to the level of proficiency of learners. The book is
specifically written for intermediate and advanced level learners (p. 177).
Chapter 9 presents some suggestions for lowering the level of activities from

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the advanced to the intermediate level of writing. It seems to be difficult to apply
the suggested activities in classes with lower than intermediate levels of writing.
In sum, the authors have established clear goals for the book, including vari-
ous interactive writing tasks, and considered the constraints of the book very
carefully. Teachers who want to adopt teaching strategies based on the prin-
ciples of self-regulation and researchers who want to have future investigations
in this area will therefore find much of interest in this publication, which has
indeed received very positive reviews from distinguished L2 writing scholars.

Reviewed by Karim Sadeghi and Sima Khezrlou

Urmia University, Iran
ksadeghi03@gmail.com
s.khezrlou@gmail.com
doi:10.1093/applin/amu005 Advance Access published on 22 March 2014

REFERENCES
Harmer, J. 2004. How to Teach Writing. Longman.
Harris, K. R., S. Graham, and L. H. Mason.
2006. ‘Improving the writing, knowledge, and
motivation of struggling young writers:
Effects of self-regulated strategy
development with and without peer support,’
American Educational Research Journal 20/43,
295–340.
Nota, L., S. Soresi, and B. J. Zimmerman.
2004. ‘Self-regulation and academic achieve-
ment and resilience: A longitudinal study,’
International Journal of Educational Research
41/3, 198–215.
Whyte, S. 2011. ‘Learning theory and
technology in university foreign language
education: The case of French universities,’
Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 10:
213–34.
Zimmerman, B. J. and D. H. Schunk. 2001.
Self-Regulated Learning and Academic
Achievement: Theoretical Perspectives, 2nd edn.
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.