Background
Shortly after the SolarSPELL offline digital library came into being, an introduction was made between Hai Do, Chief at the Learning English branch of Voice of America (VOA), and Laura Hosman, Co-Founder and Co-Director of the SolarSPELL initiative. VOA had recently launched a new English language-learning series called “Let’s Learn English,” designed by certified American English teachers for beginners, which would debut a new video-based lesson every week for 52-weeks. When Do learned about the SolarSPELL offline digital library, he recognized the importance of being able to reach the world’s population that remains offline–which is about four billion people–with Voice of America’s new series.
For her part, Hosman also recognized the value of being able to provide such high-quality English language learning content to SolarSPELL library users, and so since 2015, SolarSPELL has included Voice of America’s Let’s Learn English content on all of its libraries.
Each weekly Let’s Learn English lesson features a video telling the story of Anna, who has recently moved to Washington, D.C., as well as supplemental instruction videos, worksheets, assignments, and lesson plans. Voice of America has since launched two additional series: Let’s Learn English Level 2, and Let’s Teach English (which features SolarSPELL in Episode 4!).
Each of these series has been added to the SolarSPELL libraries.
SolarSPELL co-founders Bruce Baikie and Laura Hosman have the opportunity to meet Anna, the star (and co-creator) of the Voice of America’s Let’s Learn English series, on a visit to Washington DC in January 2020.
Miftah, Comoros SolarSPELL Champion, pictured here with his English Club, who utilize Voice of America for English-language learning
Partnership
Voice of America’s Learning English content has proven among the most popular, widely-used, and most requested content on the SolarSPELL libraries around the world.
Because of this positive response over the years, which you can read about in a number of the testimonials on this page, a Partnership Agreement has been signed between Voice of America and ASU-SolarSPELL, to signal both organizations’ commitment to work together to continue bringing this valuable content to offline communities around the world, many in the hardest-to-reach locations.
