Abstract
The Community Learning International Plaza (CLIP) is a self-access center (SAC) that opened in April 2017 at Ryutsu Keizai University, a sports and economics institution without an English major. The CLIP was founded by two lecturer/advisors (the authors of this paper) and one admin. In our development of the center, we learned from and applied past and present theory to fit the needs of our users. In the beginning, the attractive, centrally-located, open air space consisted solely of furniture, necessitating a quick call to action. To do this, we visited other SACs to gather information about the facilities and programs that might be adapted to fit our student population. There were three overarching aims in designing the center. First, we wanted to instill a sense of active learning through various services, such as free conversation on sofas and one-on-one appointments with a teacher (for speaking practice and advising), as well as clear and separate zones within the center. There is a lenient language policy in the SAC, so learners can develop through translanguaging. Next, we have promoted student ownership through developing an orientation program, starting a student club, and planning to hire student staff. Thirdly, we built relationships and an understanding of SALL with faculty and administration through interdepartmental collaboration in hosting visiting students from an American university and preparing a group of student-athletes to teach rugby in English in Indonesia. Finally, we share future directions for the second year and beyond.
Highlights
This paper will introduce the Community Learning International Plaza (CLIP), a selfaccess center (SAC) that opened in April 2017 on the main campus of Ryutsu Keizai University, in Ibaraki prefecture, Japan
All three of us started our current roles at the same time that the center opened, but we arrived after the initial planning had been executed. These decisions were made by university administration in tandem with the building designers, who loosely based the conceptual layout on open space learning (Shimizu Corporation, 2018) and the existing language learning space at the other campus
We will discuss three aims we had in designing the CLIP: 1) to instill a culture of active learning; 2) to create a sense of student ownership; 3) to build relationships and understanding of self-access language learning (SALL) with administration and faculty
Summary
This paper will introduce the Community Learning International Plaza (CLIP), a selfaccess center (SAC) that opened in April 2017 on the main campus of Ryutsu Keizai University, in Ibaraki prefecture, Japan. We will discuss three aims we had in designing the CLIP: 1) to instill a culture of active learning; 2) to create a sense of student ownership; 3) to build relationships and understanding of self-access language learning (SALL) with administration and faculty.
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