The research study seeks to explore college students' motivation for visiting Self-Access English Learning Center (SAC) and how learner autonomy might be developed through SACs. Data were collected by interviewing students and English instructors to identify the role that SACs play in learning English. A total of 24 juniors and four English teachers from four universities in Taiwan joined the focus group interviews and in-depth interviews, respectively. Findings reveal that students' motivation for visiting SACs is mainly instrumental since meeting course requirement and preparing for English proficiency tests were most commonly mentioned. Most teachers try to enhance the links between the taught English course and self-access learning at SACs, so participants generally perceive the usefulness of SACs but tend to be dependent on teachers in learning. The findings indicate the discrepancy between the prospective role of SACs and the role they actually play. Furthermore, the establishment of SACs does not necessarily result in autonomous learning among their users. In the context of Taiwan, autonomous learning needs to be encouraged with sufficient and ongoing support from teachers so that SACs would play a better role in developing autonomous and independent learners.