Leamos “Let’s Read” Online Literacy Course for Spanish Speakers

By Laura Medina, Southern California Director, Building Skills Partnership and Alison Ascher Webber, Board Member, Building Skills Partnership

“Not being literate has brought me much humiliation and ridicule. Now thanks to the Leamos program, I know how to write my name. I want to learn more Spanish and also English. I want to be somebody in life.” – Blanca Moran

The Leamos literacy course proved to be immediately effective for breaking down literacy barriers for immigrants in Los Angeles as you can see by Blanca’s success. A mother of three daughters working in a high-rise in downtown Los Angeles, Blanca learned basic Spanish literacy in her native language through Leamos online. Overcoming this barrier propelled her into enrolling and succeeding in Building Skills Partnership’s (BSP’s) ESOL and computer courses. Blanca became a trailblazer who demonstrated that Leamos was a critical tool for uplifting immigrant building service workers who had faced challenges to accessing education their entire lives.

BSP instructors expressed relief in finally having a mode of engagement for the workers willing to attend BSP trainings but who needed to learn the fundamentals of reading and writing in Spanish in order to succeed. Soon, a larger number of janitors were learning the basics of reading and writing by studying digitally on the Leamos platform.

Leamos™, which means “Let’s Read” in Spanish, is an easy-to-use online literacy course that teaches non-literate Spanish-speaking adults to read and write in Spanish. The instruction starts with the basics, even using video to show learners how to hold a pencil and form letters. Consisting of nine modules with 43 self-paced instructional lessons, it has been used successfully by thousands of individuals, adult education programs, libraries, and more.

Designed by California-based Centro Latino for Literacy, ProLiteracy acquired Leamos in 2017 to help scale the effort nationally and internationally. Since moving Leamos to its own e-learning platform, the course is now accessible on mobile devices and provides program facilitators with a standardized reporting system to track student progress.

Leamos content and audio is all in Spanish. For additional information about Leamos or to learn how to get a free demo, visit proliteracy.org/leamos, email leamos@proliteracy.org, or call 213-262-8799.