Bridging Classroom and Self-Access Learning: Teacher–Advisor Collaboration for Learner Autonomy

Abstract

Ecological perspectives on language learning emphasize that learning develops through learners’ interactions with environments across multiple settings. This view is especially relevant to first-year university students, whose learning environments change as they enter higher education and who are expected to take greater responsibility for their learning. Drawing on spatial and ecological perspectives, this study examines how classroom-based practices helped students connect a compulsory English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course with a Self-Access Learning Center (SALC) and other out-of-class learning opportunities. SALC learning advisors collaborated with the classroom teacher through a team-teaching approach involving class visits, goal setting, action planning, e-Portfolio tasks, learning activity records, and reflection. Reflective questionnaire data from 37 students in the 2024 and 2025 cohorts and retrospective interviews with two focal learners were analyzed. The findings suggest that teacher–advisor collaboration helped make out-of-class learning more visible, approachable, and personally meaningful, while allowing students to decide whether and how to engage with the opportunities introduced. They also suggest that engagement beyond the classroom was shaped by emotional and relational support, routines, and changing learner identities. The study argues that teachers can support learner autonomy by positioning the classroom as a point of departure into wider learning spaces.