14 Developing Student Support in Self-access Centres Pornapit Darasawang, Wareesiri Singhasiri and Sonthida Keyuravong Introduction ‘All learners are capable of learning and self-development and are regarded as being the most important in the process of learning and teaching.’ (Office of the National Education Commission, 2000). ‘Our students are not able to learn by themselves yet. We need to help them, to give explanations and to correct their work.’ (A teacher working in a Students English Access Room in a province in Thailand) At the beginning of 2004, the Thai Ministry of Education established 80 self-access centres called SEARs (Students English Access Rooms) in secondary schools across the country. These SEARs are designed as a resource for students to help train them in how to learn according to their own learning styles, develop ability for self-directed learning and become independent learners based on their needs, interest and poten- tiality: in other words, to develop learner autonomy (Office of the Basic Education Commission, 2004). Despite central government funding and careful planning, many teachers and students are uncertain about how to gain the greatest benefits from SEARs. In this chapter, we explore from different perspectives what specific problems teachers and students face in making the best use of SEARs. Our goal is to under- stand what future support in such limited environments will best help the beneficial development of learner autonomy within SEARs in secondary schools in Thailand. 167 A. Barfield et al. (eds.), Reconstructing Autonomy in Language Education © Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2007