培養自主性學習的世界流在最近幾年也影響了臺灣的教育發展。國內許多著名大學都積極投入研究並探索這源自於西方的自主性概念是否適用於臺灣學生。援此概念，在英語自學的實踐上，國立高雄第一科技大學在民國九十二年設立了一座全新的「多媒體英語自學中心」，提供學生豐富的英語自學教材、多元化的學習活動，以及一個有利於學生練習獨立自學的影響與機會。由於高科大的「多媒體英語自學中心」在臺灣是實驗英語自學的先驅，相信我們的經驗能提供一些思考的角度。這篇論文旨在探討四大議題：一)設立自學中心的教育發展背景；二)簡介高科大目前執行的英語自學課程；三)探討設計自學中心的主要教學理論；四)分析文化因素對於臺灣學生發展自主性學習的影響。

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.