Why should learners contribute to the self-access centre?

Diane Malcolm

As one element of a self-directed learning programme at the Arabian Gulf University in Bahrain, students make a contribution to the self-access centre (SAC ) in the form of a language learning worksheet or other Englishenhancing activity. The student contributions are evaluated by other students and added to the SAC materials banks. This initiative is aimed primarily at exposing students to a variety of learning tasks that might suggest new practice possibilities, and at increasing their personal investment in developing the SAC as a dynamic entity to serve their particular language learning needs. The potential bene>ts of this type of activity to the learners and their institution are discussed.

Introduction

The ideological orientation of self-access language learning has been criticized for promoting an organization that generally restricts the users of self-access centres (SAC s) to the role of consumers of products selected and presented by others (Benson 1994) and encourages them to take on a passive, rather than an active role in managing their learning independently (Littlejohn 1997). Nonetheless, as establishing facilities to promote self-directed learning has become a priority at more and more institutions, advocates of self-access language learning have encouraged the active involvement of the learners/users in several ways: managing resources (e.g. Sheerin 1989), providing input to materials designed to fit the cultural context (e.g. Jones 1995), or pedagogic aims of the institution (e.g. Cotterall 1995), or taking on any of the wide variety of roles, from materials writers to publicists, mentioned in Gardner and Miller 1999. However, there are few specific descriptions of efforts to engage the learner in actively contributing to self-access development within the institutional context which restricts most language teachers. One experiment involved learners in evaluating sections of a SAC , with the aim of taking greater control of not only their own learning but also of the institution whose task it is to make such learning and control possible (Aston 1993: 226). Such undertakings undoubtedly have benefits for the participants and their institutions, but it is unclear whether students wish to take on these roles, and whether such efforts will have any long-lasting impact on empowering students to take responsibility for some of the management of their own self-access learning centre.

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At the Arabian Gulf University (AGU ), we require our students to make contributions to the SAC , an aspect of our English programme which is ongoing and cumulative. Evaluation and revision are built in to the contribution initiative. Although the original idea for the contributions evolved as an attempt to accommodate to our particular situation, I believe many of the insights and practices gained from this endeavour have applications to SAC users and managers in other settings.

The self-directed learning programme at the Arabian Gulf University

Pre-medical students at the Arabian Gulf University (AGU ) must pass two compulsory English courses to proceed to the medical phase. Most students enter directly from high school, and have widely varying English proficiency levels (TOEFL 370650 approximately). Depending on their entrance test results, students are required either to take additional hours of English instruction in specific language skills, called workshops, or to complete a self-directed project, which is negotiated with the instructor, and contracted for at the beginning of the semester. All students must also complete a specified number of hours in the SAC . Credit is awarded for successful completion of all these activities. The strongest reasons for including a self-directed component in our English programme have been to provide an opportunity for individualized learning, to increase out-of-class exposure to the language and to promote learner independence. Although our students vary widely in their previous exposure to English, they are generally bright, interested, eager to learn, and above all, motivated to do well, both by the need to earn high marks in the pre-medical phase, and by the perceived importance of English for their future medical studies. The required project for the more proficient students may take many forms, but has frequently involved using or augmenting SAC resources. Examples include writing down several minutes of dialogue from a video, or helping to compile a guide to medical sites on the internet for class assignments (see Malcolm and Rindfleisch 2003). In addition to projects, the more proficient students were originally required to complete twice as many hours in the SAC as those taking workshops, but it quickly became apparent that there was little in the SAC to hold their interest, and students felt they were wasting precious time that could have been devoted to other assignments. Because of the shortcomings of our SAC for students whose English proficiency was already quite high, it was decided to try to involve them more directly in its development by making contributions.

Phase one: language learning tasks

Although recognizing that students would have different ideas about what to contribute, and being concerned about imposing a teachers concept of a good contribution, I felt it necessary to provide some examples and models as a guide. I first selected some blueprints for worksheets for independent learning that I felt would be most relevant to our students needs and interests from those provided in Gardner and Miller (1996). Samples of actual worksheets based on these guidelines were then placed in a file in the SAC , which students could easily access. Students were then required to complete two of the sample worksheets, and use those as a basis for creating their own worksheet.
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Evaluation

The initial attempt at promoting student contributions to the SAC was not an unqualified success. First of all, teachers couldnt find the time to make model worksheets for all the blueprints I had selected, so there were few for students to follow. In addition, a good deal of teacher time and energy was expended in nagging some students until a worksheet was finally produced, then revised until accompanied by an error-free answer key. Ultimately, other types of worksheets were allowed, particularly those that could be derived either from class work or students projects. Some students resorted to rampant plagiarism, while careless errors in proof reading of so-called final products led to the rejection of many. Unsatisfactory work was returned for student revision, and in some cases marks were not awarded. Nevertheless, many interesting and unique contributions were handed in, such as this sample based on a speaking activity called A Call to Dr. Know-it-all (Gardner and Miller 1996: 119). This is a role play, in which one player acts as host of a talk show, while the other calls in with a problem. The learners made role cards, which were kept in an envelope. They were supposed to record the conversation, which would take at least 10 minutes. Sample Student-Created Role-Play card: Role B You were a good student with great marks at school, so you went to study medicine in Bahrain. Youre from a Gulf country and this is your first year. You like the study and want to continue. Your cousin wants to marry you and this may disturb your studying progress. If you refuse, it may cause problems between your uncle and father. What will you do? NB. This is one of a number of different roles created by a pair of students. The students produced many other contributions, either similar to teacher samples, such as Grammar gap-filling (Gardner and Miller 1996: 156) which uses short newspaper articles with selected grammatical features removed (such as prepositions or verb forms), or of different format (e.g. true/false questions for newspaper article readings; a gap-filling listening passage, based on a student project of writing the dialogue from a video).

Phase two: the current initiative

Since it had proved difficult to get teachers, let alone students, to make contributions based on the learning task models in Gardner and Miller (1996), a much more general interpretation of contribution evolved in the second phase of the contribution initiative, as the instruction below explains:

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SAC -based contribution (Individual or group)

Because we want students to think of the self-access as their own centre for improving their English, and we want it to be as useful as possible for students studying at AGU , we want to encourage our students to become involved in making it better. Therefore, we are asking students who already have good abilities in English to do their part. There will be lots of different opportunities to make a contribution, such as preparing worksheets or answer keys, or joining a committee to advise about materials, ways of working and ideas for self-access. As for project work, students will discuss with their instructors and the SAC supervisor what contribution they would like to make. Some examples and suggestions will be found in the SAC . This explanation was intended to help clarify the aims of the contribution assignment for both instructors and students. Those useful worksheets that had been produced previously served as a point of reference for new contributions, although students were also instructed that the contributions could take many forms (see Appendix). Students were also encouraged to use their project work as the basis for a contribution. To keep track of what was being done, to discourage copying and control quality, we created a form (see below) which students had to fill in when the task was completed. Questions on this form about the type of contribution, the amount of time spent on it, what it was intended to practise and why it was useful, were intended to make the student reflect on the benefit of the contribution to the intended users, and not just consider it to be another meaningless assignment.
Example of completed contribution sheet What I Did I did some questions of Jackie Chans movie Who Am I? and enclosed it with the answers on the questions How Much Time I Spent About 3 hours for watching the movie and writing some questions and 1 hour for typing it on the computer Why So other students can practise and improve their listening skills instead of watching the whole movie without gaining any use of it. Why is it useful / How to Use it. When you play the movie you should be holding the questions sheet and listen very carefully for the answers. Therefore, students improve their listening skills.

Since we began asking for contributions, we have received a variety ranging from worksheets with an emphasis on traditional areas, such as grammar and reading, to games, books, videos, and guides. The table below gives a breakdown of a typical semesters contributions:

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Types of contributions in a typical semester Contribution type Vocabulary Number of Examples contributions 21 Crosswords; find the word puzzle; table of word forms (mostly relating to medical vocabulary studied in the course) Gap-filling (active/passive verbs, from a news article); multiple-choice; choose from a list (NB. Grammar exercises tend to be the ones most often copied from a textbook, though sometimes they are adapted and used in a different way) True/False questions; multiple-choice; vocabulary in context (some readings come from newspaper or internet articles found in files in the SAC and intended as source material for other English assignments) Gap-filling of songs, videos, recorded dialogues (mostly based on student projects) Miscellaneous 5 Two books; a video; 2 guides to materials (writing exercise on the internet; grammar exercises in published texts relating to course grammar); game (card game for word definitions)

Grammar

10

Reading

10

Listening

Student reviews

The greater control over the contribution process provided by the guidelines and instructions resulted in greater satisfaction from instructors, and a better response from students than in the first attempt, though students still needed a good deal of reminding and guidance to complete their contributions. Since they would be required to make a new contribution in the second semester, it was felt that some input on the usefulness of the contributions already made was needed. As the main thrust of the self-directed initiative had been to involve the students in managing and enhancing their self-access centre, it was decided to add another activity that would involve them in exploring this resource. Thus, the idea came about to require students to review existing contributions. This time, all students were involved, not just those who produced contributions in the first semester, but the lower proficiency, workshop students as well. The following instructions were distributed at the start of the second semester:

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As part of your SAC activities, you are required to complete and review at least one student contribution. 1 Look in the files for student worksheets. Choose one you think would be interesting for you. Complete the exercise, then review it (i.e. say what you liked/didnt like; how useful it was, etc. There is a form for this.) 2 Keep the completed worksheet and the review in your file. 3 Count the time it took you to do the worksheet and the review as part of your SAC hours. A detailed SAC contribution form was made available. Students were required to keep the completed form in their individual SAC folders, where they could be checked by their instructors. At the end of the semester, all reviews were collected for analysis. In general, students most appreciated worksheets that were fast and easy to do, even if they found them below their level. Student criticisms of the contributions and answer keys also help in revising or eliminating materials.

Discussion: was it worth doing?

Inevitably, when any programme is applied to a group of individuals, even when there is plenty of room for choice, there will be some who respond well to the opportunity, and others who resent it. As part of a larger evaluation that was distributed to all our students at the end of the 200102 academic year, students were asked their opinion about the usefulness of the self-directed activities they had done throughout the year. Most students (72%) were satisfied that project work helped in improving their English, but only about a third felt that student contributions to the SAC were important. While it is possible that their attitude may be attributed to being brainwashed by an ideological orientation in which they expect to be consumers, rather than producers, it may also reflect an understandable resentment at having their workload increased. However, as the contribution forms made clear, most students didnt invest a great deal of time in completing their contributions, and were able to express their aims clearly. It is also apparent that the students drew on their own interests, previous language learning background, and the resources of the SAC and their learning community in ways their instructors would be unlikely to duplicate. Two recent contributions serve to illustrate. The first was a simple First Aid book, containing pictures and text for treating common medical emergencies, such as burns. The book, along with a reading exercise consisting of true/false questions related to the material of the text, formed one contribution. The second was a series of questions accompanying an internet article on death and dying. It is clear that a good deal of thought had gone into these choices, and their value to future medical students is obvious. Can students who are not results-oriented, over-achieving medical students be expected to contribute to the development of their SAC? I
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believe that they can, with guidance and motivation (the opportunity to earn marks works wonders). Children or low proficiency learners can make up simple worksheets based on stories in magazines, the internet, or books, or devise basic games, contribute favourite videos, with exercises, or make recordings or discussion activities. How satisfying to leave a lasting legacy of their English endeavour for others to use, rather than just a grade on a test or a completed SAC activity sheet. Furthermore, I have observed since our SAC was set up a few years ago that students are much more likely to reach for a worksheet that can be quickly done, rather that a book of published materials. Most student-created worksheets and activities have been well received and well used, and the reviews are generally favourable. It is unrealistic to expect students to take on all roles and responsibilities for a SAC, but a little effort can go a long way towards individualizing the centre.

Conclusion and recommendations

In order for student involvement in SAC development not to languish, or seem an unreasonable chore, the active co-operation of SAC administrators, staff, instructors, and students is essential. Avenues for feedback must be created and maintained, and practices and products constantly reviewed and revised in the light of what it is hoped to accomplish. Students need a good deal of support, guidance, and clarification, so that they can understand, and can benefit from their effort. They need recognition and validation for what they accomplish as well, which can take the form of a congratulatory note in their SAC file, or recommending their material to other students in class, for example. Encouraging students through the process, from getting an idea to actually achieving what they envisaged, is sometimes tortuous, and may seem a burden to be avoided. Nonetheless, taking steps to increase students sense of the SAC as their property, a tool they can help develop as well as use, an investment that can grow as a result of their own efforts, may result in dividends that enrich all those who have a stake in the institution. Final revised version received November 2003
Jones, J. 1995. Self-access and culture: retreating from autonomy. ELT Journal 49/3: 22834. Littlejohn, A. 1997. Self-access work and curriculum ideologies in P. Benson and P. Voller (eds.) Autonomy and Independence in Language Learning. London: Longman. Malcolm, D. and W. Rindfleisch. 2003. Individualizing learning through self-directed projects. English Teaching Forum 41/3: 1015. Sheerin, S. 1989. Self-Access. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The author Diane Malcolm co-ordinates self-directed learning activities and directs the self-access centre at The Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain, where she has taught pre-medical students for many years. Email: diane@agu.edu.bh

References Aston, G. 1993. The learners contribution to the self-access centre. ELT Journal 47/3: 21927. Benson, P. 1994.Self-access systems as information systems: questions of ideology and control in D. Gardner and L. Miller (eds.) Directions in Self-Access Language Learning. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Cotterall, S. 1995. Developing a course strategy for learner autonomy. ELT Journal 49/3: 21927. Gardner, D. and L. Miller (eds.). 1996. Tasks for Independent Language Learning. Alexandria, VA: TESOL. Gardner, D. and L. Miller. 1999. Establishing SelfAccess: From Theory to Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Appendix

Information sheet for students regarding the contribution As part of your independent learning this semester, you must make a SAC contribution. A contribution is something you give that will be useful for others. This contribution can take the shape of something written, recorded or can involve giving time or materials. All of you have spent several hours in the SAC now, so have an idea about what its for and what can be found in it. Think about a contribution you can make that would be helpful for everyone, but especially for those students who need the most help in improving their English. Kinds of contribution you can make producing worksheets 1 Reading exercises Use the articles files to make a reading exercise. This can have: True/False Questions Wh-questions (Comprehension questions) Fill in the blanks questions Outlining questions Summarizing questions Vocabulary questions Reference questions, etc. Use something you did for your project as the basis for a reading exercise Take an article from the internet and make some exercises about it 2 Listening exercises Make a recording of a conversation with you and a friend; or just give a short lecture (maybe based on a speaking assignment or something you have special knowledge about, such as a hobby or a sport you play) or tell a story. You can record a reading of one of the SAC books that doesnt already have a tape to go with it. Use one of the videos (e.g. medical videos) as the basis for a listening exercise. Make some questions about a section of the video, or the whole video. Work with a group of friends to make a new SAC video (similar to the one you saw at your orientation). Note that all exercises must have an answer key. making guides for students Explore some of the books or other materials (audio tapes, for example) in the SAC and make a guide for students about what is in them and whether or not they might be useful. For example, find some exercises from SAC books that might be useful for students to practise summary writing. Write up a guide for the students about where to find the materials, its usefulness, and what level it is.

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Describe one book or other type of material in the SAC that you found useful and explain why; explain to students how to use it, what for; difficulty level, etc. Try a worksheet or book you havent looked at before; evaluate it. (i.e. comment on whether its useful or not; any di;culties you had with it, etc.). Suggest some different ways to use materials in the SAC (e.g. games). Make guides to internet sites and explain what they are useful for (there are already some of these in the SAC). Make simple exercises to go with them (e.g. finding certain things and writing them down from a site). other types of contributions Evaluation of the SAC. Work with a group of students to prepare a questionnaire that will collect students opinions about the SAC and the hours that have to be spent there. Draft the questionnaire and show to the SAC staff. Distribute the questionnaire to the students and collect their answers. Summarize the results. Write your own evaluation of the SAC: whats most helpful, what you like/dislike about it, etc. Specific details will be needed for this activity. Give your time as a tutor for a student who needs help to make a programme and follow it through. This could involve finding out what di;culties the student has, >nding things in the SAC that could help him or her and setting goals for the student (e.g. Do exercises in such and such a book, etc.). Test the student at the end. These activities must be done in the SAC. Contribute materials in the form of magazines, books, videos, etc. In addition to giving the material, you must include an explanation about how to use it, what its useful for, and why you think it should be in the SAC. Your own ideas.

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