A survey of the design features of national and international self-access centers: inputs to the process of decision-making for a self-access center in the Middle East Technical University

Abstract

Since the 1970s, there has been increasing attention to learner-centeredness in the field of foreign language teaching. The concept of learner-centeredness has led to various modes of teaching which focus on the notion that learners need to take responsibility for their own learning. These modes of teaching have been labelled individualized instruction, self-instruction, self-directed learning and learner autonomy. If learner autonomy is the ultimate goal, one way of achieving learner autonomy is through a self-access system in which materials are made available to students in a user-friendly manner. This study focused on the critical design factors to be considered when setting up a self-access center in order to assist the administration of the Middle East Technical University (METU) Department of Basic English (DBE), in their task of setting up a self-access center. A number of questions were asked by the researcher to provide METU with a detailed description of the critical design factors in respect to setting up a self-access center. The first question was to determine the design factors. The second question was to sample nationally and internationally how various centers dealt with the design decisions and how students reacted to these design decisions. Student reactions were examined by a questionnaire and institutional design decisions were examined by interviewing administrators of various national and international institutions. The national institutions selected were Baskent University, Bilkent University and Cukurova University. One hundred and fifteen students at these institutions were given questionnaires and four administrators were interviewed at these institutions. Students were selected randomly except for proficiency levels. The international sampling was done via E-mail and fax correspondence, and leading self-access experts were correponded with while doing the international sampling. Some of these experts contributed to the study by forwarding or recommending source papers and those who agreed to cooperate were interviewed. The experts corresponded with are Lindsay Miller (City University of Hong Kong, Head of English Department), Ann Heller (Head of IALS, United Kingdom), Edith Esch (Head of the English Language Center, University of Cambridge), Bruce Morrison (Coordinator, Center for Independent Language Learning, Department of English, Hong Kong Poly University), Phil Riley (Head of CRAPEL, University of Nancy, France) and Leslie Dickinson (Lecturer at the Scottish Center for Education Overseas). Among these leading self-access experts, Bruce Morrison and Lindsay Miller answered the researcher's interview questions. Data were analyzed and presented in a detailed and conversational format to facilitate the decision-making process of the administrators of METU. The design factors in respect to a self-access center were determined to be materials, physical lay-out, budgets, teacher and learner roles, teacher and learner training and relationship of a self-access center to the school curriculum. It was found out that students and administrators agreed on the usefulness and necessity of self-access centers. It was further found out that students did not use the self-access centers due to a variety of reasons. The task of the decision-markers at METU seems to be increasing the utilization of the self-access center they are in the process of establishing, taking into consideration the factors of non-use presented in the conclusion.