Self-Access Language Learning Centers: Benefits and Types

Posted on Apr 18, 2025 in Primary Education

Self-Access Language Learning Centers

Self-Access Language Learning Centers are educational facilities designed for student learning that is self-directed (Synonyms: learner-centered approach, learner autonomy, or self-directed learning). They exist in Asia, Europe, and North America. Proper use can result in a feeling of empowerment and better learning outcomes, but getting to the point where students and teachers can exploit them well can be problematic. For this reason, the structure of established self-access centers varies from completely student-directed work with classroom immersion to those which provide primarily tutor or instructor guidance for student work.

Definition

They promote the approach where students study independently, choosing from among different resources that are available. Self-access language learning is closely related to learner-centered approaches, learner autonomy, and self-directed learning, as all focus on student responsibility and active participation for their own learning. What resources are available and how students are guided to use them depend on the financial resources available and how much learner autonomy the institution decides to give students.

Examples of self-access centers in Taiwan have 3 pedagogical goals:

  • To support English courses by reducing teacher workload.
  • To make up for the limited time that large classes have for listening and speaking.
  • To foster autonomy and self-directive study strategies among students.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Self-Access Learning Centers

Advantages

  • Students set the pace of their work.
  • Students set the level and content of their work.
  • Students can use these centers voluntarily or can have assignments to complete there.
  • Flexibility (major advantage): gives students the opportunity to tailor the course more to their learning needs and styles than a more traditional mode of teaching.
  • Use of multiple technologies in a more independent setting has been shown to improve motivation and increase students’ ability to work independently by taking more responsibility for their own learning.
  • Students feel more empowered.

Disadvantages

  • The ability of both students and teachers to adapt and integrate this method effectively.
  • Students are not used to working independently.
  • Students do not seem to want too much freedom in their use of technology.

Disadvantages for Teachers

  • The ‘letting go’ of control can be disorienting and may seem that giving students such control depreciates teachers’ skills and experience.
  • Use of self-access center materials steers students away from the rigidity and “security” of this paradigm, causing teachers to lose their “all-powerful” and “all-knowing” position.
  • Overuse of technology or students not knowing how to use it.

Types of Self-Access Learning Centers

1. Fully Independent Learning

Students set their own curriculum and goals, self-assessing their progress. Teachers function only as “counselors” who give feedback after students evaluate their learning.

2. Semi-Guided Learning

Some centers make tutors available to give academic and psychological support. Students may or may not choose how self-directed or tutor-dependent they choose to be.

3. Self-Access Center Combined with English-Language Writing Center

While the union has not proved to provide any benefits, the idea has been promoted as a way to enhance both general writing skills, which in turn support the acquisition of other language skills such as reading, speaking, and listening.

4. The KELP Project (Kanda English Language Proficiency)

This project at the University of Japan is not a self-access center, but rather a program by which all English language classrooms become independent-learning or self-access centers. Work that is typically done in a self-access center combined with traditional classroom activities becomes the core of the program. Students, with help from the teacher, create what is essentially their own course. The teacher becomes a “facilitator” who:

  1. Sets up the classroom.
  2. Trains students.
  3. Manages learning assessment.
  4. Maintains discipline in the classroom.