US-Brazil Connect has successfully completed its OUTSpoken Program, adding another innovative, impactful educational collaboration with Brazil to its portfolio.
OUTSpoken is modeled after the successful Conexão Mundo Program, with one key difference: rather than improving the English language skills of students in Brazil’s SESI and SENAI school systems, OUTSpoken partners with adult Brazilian teachers.
“What is exciting about OUTSpoken is that it is a chance for us to adapt a proven program to a new learner population,” said Susan Gershwin, Conexão Mundo Co-Director at US-Brazil Connect.
The Brazilian teachers who participated in OUTSpoken work as a part of the largest network of technical schools in the Americas. Over 7 million students are enrolled in the SESI and SENAI systems to prepare for careers in Brazilian industry.
OUTSpoken is also an organizational departure for US-Brazil Connect. Until now, US-Brazil Connect has only worked with Brazilian industry leaders at the national level. By contrast, OUTSpoken is a collaboration limited to the Brazilian state of Rondônia.
Even with a new focus on adult learning, the program worked with the same methods that have made Conexão Mundo a resounding success. In both programs, trained coaches spend several weeks in Brazil coaching English with Brazilian students. As prelude and postlude to the in-person instruction period, students and coaches build relationships and strengthen skills via Google Hangout video chats, Facebook and other social media platforms
“By focusing on personal relationships as the key unit for learning, our programs seek to offer the best of both the online and physical classroom. OUTSpoken will work on the same principle,” explained President Mary Gershwin.
The OUTSpoken Program launched in December 2014, offering the opportunity for 40 participants in Rondônia to meet their US coaches and begin practicing English with a native speaker. They met face-to-face in January of 2015 and are currently wrapping up the final online phase of the program.
Bri Erger—US-Brazil Connect’s Community College Program Manager—led the OUTSpoken Program in Porto Velho, Rondônia from January 4th to January 23rd.
“OUTSpoken was a transformative opportunity for everyone—our US coaches, our Brazilian learners, the coordinators and myself. We saw the model of learning English by building relationships created the same excitement and playfulness in adults that it creates in high school students,” said Erger. “We look forward to continuing to develop opportunities for adult learners both here and in the US and in Brazil.”
