2. FIRST CONTACT
Mexico is one such example where the universities are setting up self-access
facilities for language learning. At the time of writing, thirty-four well-
resourced centres are in operation, each one planned to meet the particular
needs and flexible working hours of the thousands of students on its campus.
Regional work groups and frequent conferences have established a network
between the universities to exchange ideas and discuss problems.
(Sturtridge; 1997,67-8)
The quotation above is a fairly objective account of the Self-access project in
Mexico. However, I would say that it is an outsider account. I, and with me many teachers
and students involved in the project, see it from a different perspective. In the following
sections and in chapters 3 and 4, I will explain to the reader the way things appear very
different when seen from a different angle.
The content of the present chapter consists in three main parts. The first is a brief
account of the way I was introduced to the project to Self-access Centres in Mexico. In the
second, I refer to the literature review I carried out in order to understand the concept of self-
directed learning that underlies the project and the connection I made with the related
concept of autonomy. The third part is a description of the Self-access centre in Oaxaca,
according to the way we, in Oaxaca, interpreted the concept. I strongly believe that for the
reader to understand the research I plan to do, and its underlying rationale, it is necessary to
know the way self-directed language learning was originated and developed in Mexico.
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