The world trend of promoting learner autonomy has reached Taiwan in recent years. Many major universities and language program providers around the island are eager to explore whether autonomy, primarily a Western concept, is suitable for Taiwanese students as they are often portrayed as teacher-dependent in the literature. To experiment with this new idea of autonomous learning, National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology (NKFUST) set up its Multimedia English Learning Center (MELC) in 2003 through grants from the Ministry of Education and the University. The mission of this center is to provide a rich collection of self-access materials and resources, diverse learning activities, and a supportive environment so that students have opportunities to direct their own learning without teacher supervision. As the Center is one of the first of its kind in supporting self-access in Taiwan and now in its third year of full operation, other universities planning to implement such a program may benefit from our experience. Consequently, this paper addresses four major concerns of interest to local language program designers and administrators. Firstly, we discuss the educational circumstances leading to the setting up of the MELC. Secondly, we provide a brief description of the self-access program currently in place at NKFUST. Thirdly, we elaborate the pedagogical assumptions underlying the design of such a center. Finally, we review some cultural factors that many impede the development of autonomous learning in our local educational setting. We expect that what we have done to promote learner autonomy will be applicable to other language institutions with goals similar to ours.