Background
Banco Santander launched the Santander Fala Mundo 2026 initiative in partnership with IMMERSE, the Fluency Performance category pioneer, offering 80,000 fully-funded scholarships to Brazilian citizens for foreign language learning. Administered through the Santander Open Academy platform, the program covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, and French — and represents one of the largest single deployments of immersive language technology in Latin America.
The Deployment
Scholarship recipients gain free access to the IMMERSE Fluency Performance Platform, which combines immersive 3D virtual environments with AI-driven conversational practice and live instruction. Applications were accepted via Santander Open Academy through March 2026. Learners choose their target language and progress from beginner (A1) through advanced (C1) levels, following CEFR and ACTFL international frameworks across five learning phases per level.
Platform and Technology
The IMMERSE Fluency Performance platform integrates AI at three key stages of the learning journey:
- Adaptive assessment: An AI simulation identifies each learner's true starting level and generates a personalized learning pathway towards their goals — aligned with employee, team, and company-wide goals.
- Avatar-based AI learning: AI-powered avatar coaches conducts guided dialogues on learner-selected topics, delivering contextualized spoken practice.
- Real-World Application: Whether using a phone or a pair of AI smart glasses (in the near future), learners can activate IMMERSE to monitor their real-world conversations. The platform will measure real-world performance and leverage AI to further personalize the learning pathway based on real-world success and failure. Every conversation makes the next learning sessions more effective.
Learners additionally access live classes with specialist instructors and interactive vocabulary activities. Immersive 3D environments simulate real-world contexts — workplace interactions, social situations — to build communicative confidence in scenarios that mirror authentic language use.
Scale and Access
The 80,000 scholarships are fully subsidized, eliminating financial barriers to quality language education. Santander Open Academy frames the initiative as part of its global mission to democratize learning; IMMERSE brings a platform with a track record across 250,000 learners in 93 countries to a new, scholarship-based audience in Brazil.
