Introduction

Hello! My name is Hisako and I work at the Self-Access Learning Center (SALC) at Kanda University of International Studies. I heard that members would like to have a space where we can talk about issues that we face in building / managing / improving self-access centers and in promoting learner autonomy in our institutions. Of course, it would be great if we can talk face-to-face, but that is not possible, so this blog can be a place where we can keep in touch. So please respond to the posts or if you have some questions or discussions you would like to throw to the JASAL community that would help everyone. There are no silly questions!

I hope we can all introduce ourselves so that we can all become the resource for others.

So let me introduce myself. This is my third year working as a Learning Advisor. I work with 7 other Learning Advisors. Although our SALC is large in scale, there are many issues that we face. For example, lots of students are using the SALC, but freshmen and sophomore students are the main users. Of course there are junior and senior students who have been using the SALC since they arrived here, but there are also students in their senior year who hesitate to come to SALC because they don't know how to use the SALC and they are too embarassed to ask (I hear that they feel guilty asking!). So we are thinking of ways to make the facilities in the SALC more accessible by providing workshops focused on say, "How to use the Speaking Booth to improve your pronunciation" etc.

I am looking forward to exchanging ideas and hearing from you all about where you work, what your endeavors are and what issues you face.