IATEFL Learner Autonomy Special Interest Group
A website to share news and resources related to learner autonomy.
Self-access around the world
The
USBI-Xalapa Self-Access Centre at
Universidad
Veracruzana , Mexico 
| Institution |
The
Universidad Veracruzana is a public
university in |
| Students |
At
the Universidad Veracruzana, undergraduate students are required to
take basic
English courses and are offered elective courses in French, German and
Italian.
At the USBI-Xalapa SAC, most of our students have opted to not take
classroom
instruction. Instead,
they meet their
language requirement by completing a course of study at the
SAC.
Other students take
language instruction at
school and come to the SAC for further practice. Both groups of
students get
credit for these courses. In addition, we have some learners who come
to our
SAC in order to learn the language, and who are not seeking credit.
|
| Purpose |
One
of the purposes of our centre (and
also of the Universidad Veracruzana) is to offer students an option in
their
foreign language learning. Autonomous learning at a self-access center
was not well-known in
our society eight years ago but little by little it has
become part of our immediate reality in Mexico. At the
Universidad
Veracruzana there is a clear goal in facilitating autonomous learning
in
university education. |
| Features | In
our centre, we have a semi-directed learning approach called
Self-Access
Language Learning (SALL). Learners are provided with counseling
sessions, a
proposed pathway and materials that are organized within a given course
syllabus. There are
also conversation
sessions to cater for oral production skills and a wide variety of
materials of
all sorts – both paper and electronic. |
| Facilities
and materials |
The
USBI-Xalapa
Self-Access Centre has a
capacity for over 300 students. We have four different areas (a digital
material area, a printed material area, a video viewing area and a
listening
area). We have a
separate space for
group events (films, talks, and training), conversation rooms and
counseling
rooms. |
| More
information |
USBI-Xalapa
Self-access centre:
http://www.uv.mx/portalcadi Universidad Veracruzana: http://www.uv.mx Contact Sergio Valdivia : svaldivia@gmail.com |
Want to feature your self access center here? Contact Jo Mynard
[ Become a member ]