Abstract
The concept of self-access in language learning has received significant attention over the past fifty years. While the ostensible objectives of student-centred language and student-centred learning that it was intended to provide are still eminently relevant, many forms of self-access would appear to deviate from these initial intentions and respond to objectives that may not always be in the students’ best interests. This chapter will take a new look at self-access and examine to what extent it may no longer be relevant today and in what ways it may be reinvented to correspond to the needs of the contemporary learner in higher education.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
I refer here to Kachru’s Concentric Circles model , in which the “inner circle” refers to countries where English has traditionally been the official language, the “outer circle” to countries who have had strong historical ties with English, often through colonisation, and the “expanding circle” to countries who see English as the most important foreign language to master.
- 2.
The LRC handbook: Guidelines for setting up, running and expanding Language Resource Centres (LRCs) (Socrates Programme, 2003).
- 3.
Association de Formation Professionnelle des Adultes.
- 4.
«Autoformation et Centre de ressources» (Self-Instruction and Resource Centres), CEGOS: Démultiplier la formation 1992.
- 5.
«Communiquer pour aborder l’international»  (Communication as a Strategy for Going International), CEGOS: Démultiplier la formation 1994.
- 6.
This was the case, for example, in some universities in France during the period around 2010 when future teachers had to certify a language level , but no training was explicitly provided in their degree programme, according to the Rivens Mompean survey (2013).
- 7.
- 8.
See Reinders (2012) for a sharp critique of SACs as “glorified homework rooms”.
- 9.
The French student riots of 1968 were followed almost everywhere in France by the break-up of universities into institutions bringing together related disciplines , in general Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Technology, Health, Law and Economics. As of 2009, and further to a law instigating independence for universities, this movement was reversed, with local universities merging on new grounds, often in order to ensure better visibility on the international scene, but also to access renewed public funding.
- 10.
PĂ´le Lansad.
- 11.
I would like to thank Dominique Dujardin (Research Associate), Monicá Fierro-Porto, Fatima Hamade, Samah El Khatib and Claude Bourhis (second-year Masters students) for their investment and involvement in this work.
- 12.
LimeSurvey is open-source online statistical survey software.
- 13.
Sphinx Plus2—(Lexica-V5 Edition) is more powerful statistical calculation software.
- 14.
χ2 is a test of the validity of the relationships between 2 or more factors. It determines to what extent the link between two factors is due to chance.
- 15.
These are “control of processes”, “seeking feedback” and “seeking explanation” (Prince, 2009, p. 78).
- 16.
This indicates that there is only a 0.01% probability that these results be due to chance.
- 17.
Students in Arts, Literature, Languages are mainly enrolled in LCE/LEA or CRAL courses, those in Science and Technology or Health in LRCs and those in Human and Social Sciences in LRCs and CRAL. Students in the fields of law, economics, management, political and social sciences are under-represented in this sample because their compulsory language courses are provided in structures that are not part of the IWLP Cluster. They are over-represented at SPIRAL where they can study languages that are not offered in their own programmes.
References
Abe, D. (1995). Organiser l’apprendre à apprendre en milieu industriel: Le Centre de ressources de l’entreprise E. Mélanges CRAPEL (Numéro spécial: Centre de Ressources) n° 22, 137–168.
Albero, B., & Poteaux, N. (2010). Enjeux et dilemmes de l’autonomie: Une expérience d’autoformation à l’université. Paris: Les Éditions de la MSH.
Candas, P., & Poteaux, N. (2011). De la nécessaire distance dans l’apprentissage d’une langue étrangère. Distances et savoirs, 8(4), 521–539.
Cole, J. (2015). Foreign language learning in the age of the internet: A comparison of informal acquirers and traditional classroom learners in central Brazil (Doctoral thesis). University of Oxford, Oxford.
Cotterall, S., & Reinders, H. (2001). Fortress or bridge? Learners’ perceptions and practice in self access languages learning. Tesolanz, 8, 23–38.
Dickinson, L. (1987). Self-instruction in language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Esch, E. (1994). Self-access and the adult language learner. London: CILT.
Gardner, D., & Miller, L. (1999). Establishing self-access: From theory to practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gremmo, M.-J., & Riley, P. (1995). Autonomy, self-direction and self access in language teaching and learning: The history of an idea. System, 23(2), 151–164. https://doi.org/10.1016/0346-251X(95)00002-2.
Holec, H. (1995). Mélanges CRAPEL n° 22 (Numéro spécial: Centre de Ressources). ATILF-CRAPEL.
Kachru, B. B. (1985). Standards, codification and sociolinguistic realism: The English language in the outer circle. In B. Quirk & H. G. Widdowson (Eds.), English in the world: Teaching and learning the language and literatures (pp. 11–30).
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2018). Looking ahead: Future directions in, and future research into, second language acquisition. Foreign Language Annals, 51(1), 55–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12314.
Lazaro, N., & Reinders, H. (2009). Language learning and teaching in the self-access centre. Innovation Press.
Lebaron, F. (2015). L’espace social. Statistique et analyse géométrique des données dans l’œuvre de Pierre Bourdieu. In F. Lebaron & B. Le Roux (Éds.), La méthodologie de Pierre Bourdieu en action: Espace culturel, espace social et analyse des données (pp. 43–58). Paris: Dunod.
Lebaron, F., & Le Roux, B. (Éds.). (2015). La méthodologie de Pierre Bourdieu en action: Espace culturel, espace social et analyse des données. Paris: Dunod.
Little, D. (1991). Learner autonomy: Definitions, issues and problems (Vol. 1). Dublin: Authentik Language Learning Resources Limited.
Little, D., Dam, L., & Legenhausen, L. (2017). Language learner autonomy: Theory, practice and research. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Little, D., & Thorne, S. L. (2017). From learner autonomy to rewilding: A discussion. In M. Cappellini, T. Lewis, & A. Rivens Mompean (Eds.), Learner autonomy and web 2.0 (pp. 12–35). Sheffield: Equinox.
Poteaux, N. (2014). Les langues étrangères pour tous à l’université: Regard sur une expérience (1991–2013). Les dossiers des sciences de l’éducation, 32, 17–32.
Prince, P. (2009). Un ménage à trois fragile: Autonomie, Motivation et Apprentissage dans un Centre de Langues. Lidil Revue de linguistique et de didactique des langues, 40, 71–88.
Reinders, H. (2012). The end of self-access? From Walled garden to public park. ELTWorldOnline.com, 4. http://blog.nus.edu.sg/eltwo/2012/06/13/the-end-of-self-access-from-walled-garden-to-public-park-2/.
Rivens Mompean, A. (2013). Le Centre de Ressources en Langues: Vers la modélisation du dispositif d’apprentissage. Lille: Éditions du Septentrion. http://www.septentrion.com/en/livre/?GCOI=27574100883330.
Rivens Mompean, A., & Scheer, R. C. (2003). Le Centre de Ressources en Langues: De l’outil satellite au dispositif intégré. ASp. la revue du GERAS, 41–42, 125–141. https://doi.org/10.4000/asp.1224.
Sheerin, S. (1989). Self access. Oxford: OUP.
Sockett, G., & Toffoli, D. (2012). Beyond learner autonomy: A dynamic systems view of the informal learning of English in virtual online communities. ReCALL, 24(2), 138–151. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0958344012000031.
Toffoli, D. (2000). Au coeur de la formation: L’apprenant. Une recherche-action sur l’apprentissage de l’anglais en milieu professionnel (Thèse de doctorat). Université de La Rochelle.
Toffoli, D., El Khatib, S., Fierro-Porto, M., & Hamade, F. (2014). Rapport d’enquête sur les représentations étudiantes et l’apprentissage des langues à l’Université de Strasbourg (p. 41). Strasbourg: Université de Strasbourg.
Toffoli, D., & Sockett, G. (2015). L’apprentissage informel de l’anglais en ligne (AIAL), qu’est-ce que ça change pour les centres de langues? Recherche et Pratiques Pédagogiques en Langues de Spécialité. Cahiers de l’Apliut, XXXIV(1). https://apliut.revues.org/5055.
Toffoli, D., & Speranza, L. (2016). L’autonomie comme facteur déterminant dans la réussite d’un enseignement Lansad en sciences historiques. Recherche et Pratiques Pédagogiques en Langues de Spécialité. Cahiers de l’Apliut, 35(spécial 1). https://doi.org/10.4000/apliut.5505.
Working Party of European Language Centre Directors. (2009, 2012). The Wulkow memoranda on languages in higher education. Wulkow: Sprachenzentrum, Europa-Universität Viadrina. http://www.sz.europa-uni.de/de/startsite_news/spalte_4_informationen/news4_wolkow_memorandum/wulkow_memorandum.html.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Toffoli, D. (2020). Targeting Student-Centred Language Through Self-Access. In: Informal Learning and Institution-wide Language Provision. New Language Learning and Teaching Environments. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37876-9_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37876-9_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-37875-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-37876-9
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)