The SAC as a Community of Practice: A Case Study of Peer-Run Conversation Sessions at the Universidad del Caribe

Abstract

The present article describes how the development of the ‘conversation sessions’ in the self-access centre (SAC) fostered a Community of Practice (CoP) as theorised by Lave & Wenger (1991). Our SAC is at a government-funded university in Cancun, Mexico. The conversation sessions were implemented with the aim to offer our EFL students the opportunity to practice speaking on a regular basis to complement their English programme. These peer-run conversations, in turn, are one of the key elements that led to the creation of a CoP where SAC users and personnel share a repertoire of resources and conventions created over time in order to form, transmit and advance knowledge.

Keywords

• Peer-learning
• communities of practice
• self-access learning
• legitimate peripheral participation
• agency
• autonomy