they can ‘relax’ in English boosts learners’ self-esteem and contributes to
their developing identity as proficient language users.
10 Contribute materials to the centre. Different institutions have different
policies on this issue, but many welcome contributions from all the teaching
staff. So if you come across material that you think would be useful, try to
get it in there and build up the collection.32 Training learners to use self-access materials
Some of your learners are likely to have worked with self-access materials
successfully before and won’t need much help regarding how to make best use
of them. Learners who have not worked on their own before are likely to need
study skills guidance. The following suggestions may help you to work out your
own study skills briefing for learners using self-access materials (including ones
that you have designed yourself, and ones you may have adopted or adapted).
1 Explain the benefits to learners. For example, they can learn-by-doing, at
their own pace, and at times and places of their own choice. They can also
choose whether to work through the materials entirely on their own, or
whether to work collaboratively sometimes.
2 Emphasize the advantages of the comfort of privacy in which to make
mistakes. Learners who don’t like to be seen to make mistakes in class will
appreciate the opportunity to practise with self-access materials, so that they
can have as much practice as they like on particular concepts or skills.
3 Help learners to make good use of expressed learning outcomes. Explain
that these are a frame of reference, allowing learners to see for themselves
how their studies are progressing, and showing them what the expected
targets and standards will be.
4 Remind students of the value of learning-by-doing. Explain to them that
they will learn very little just by looking through self-access materials, and
much more by having a try at each and every task and exercise. Point out
that the heart of independent learning is the self-assessment which learners
can do as they work through the materials.
5 Help learners to make the most of the feedback in the materials. Point
out that there is nothing to be gained by looking at the answers or feedback
after simply reading tasks, and that doing so is only robbing them of the
value they could have gained by using the feedback after doing the tasks.
6 Try to check up on whether learners are actually doing the tasks,
questions and activities. For example, ask them to bring along their
marked-up copies of learning materials to class sometimes, where you can
see what they have done. Ask learners to make lists of questions to ask you
about any aspects of the learning materials with which they are having
problems.IMPLEMENTING SELF-ACCESS 59