The authors describe a research project designed to investigate the extent to which autonomy-supportive conditions exist for fostering English language use in a large self-access learning centre (“the SALC”) in a university in Japan. In order to investigate these conditions, it is necessary to evaluate an environment from multiple perspectives, and although this is an ongoing process that is likely to take several years, the authors begin by exploring the views of the student users, and also the team of learning advisors (LAs) who work full time in the SALC. The research team investigated factors that might contribute to basic psychological needs - autonomy, relatedness and competence - such as how comfortable students felt about using English, whether the environment was conducive in promoting English language use, and how the environment may or may not contribute to a sense of self-determination about language learning.