SELF-ACCESS CENTRE

Some time ago in the English Department we realized that in Secondary and Bachillerato the number of weekly English lessons established by the curriculum is not enough if we want to get the high objectives of our linguistic project.

So, we thought of creating a self-access centre. Such projects are common in English and French schools, though the system is basically focused on computer assisted linguistic reinforcement. The project in Munabe tries to go further.

The self-access centre consists of a room with different equipment (computers, video and DVD, CD-tape recorder) and materials (worksheets, dictionaries, etc.) which allow students both to have further curricular practice as a reinforcement and to prepare to get official certificates such as Cambridge exams or the School of Languages.

The dynamics is quite simple. Just after lunch Secondary and Bachillerato students count on 30 minutes before the afternoon lessons. It´s then that they can volunteerly access the self-access centre. There is a big bookcase with different classified activities depending on the kind of preparation they require. They can either work making use of the different electronic equipment (computer software, video, DVD, cassettes) or just with worksheets on a big table. Whatever they choose they always have to fill in different standard sheets to show the work they have done and the input they have acquired. Although the different activities include a key with the answers for self-correction, there is always a teacher present to assist students. Finally, in order to encourage students to attend the self-access centre they have to leave their worksheets in different trays where their teachers´ names appear. Thus, the different teachers can take their work into account.