By: Dr. Liza Trejo and Marnina Falk Colman
As you all probably know, I’m a little bit obsessed with patterns. When I start to notice a pattern, I get curious. I start collecting evidence, making observations, and trying to figure out if there is some connection or through line.
Episode 15 of The Multiliterate Mind, “The Lasting Impact of Language Immersion,” was no exception.
Not only was I surprised by several aspects of the conversation, but I was left wondering:
What if the lasting impact of immersion isn’t simply what students learn, but what learning through another language makes possible?
Like maybe we aren’t measuring enough.
As Marnina and I reviewed the transcript from this episode and talked through our impressions and takeaways, a few patterns started to emerge.
The three young women at the center of this conversation, Destiney Williams, Camryn Durr, and Kaylin Dalton, were among Marnina’s very first students at Foreign Language Immersion and Culture Studies in Detroit Public Schools, where she taught them Spanish across their elementary and middle school years. Now in college, each has carried those early experiences with language and culture in different directions.
Camryn is studying biology and chemistry at Claflin University and has already found herself drawing on her Spanish background to teach high school Spanish classes. Destiney, now a Communication major at the University of Southern California, speaks Spanish and Japanese and has studied abroad in both Mexico and Japan. Kaylin, a Psychology major and Political Science minor on the pre-law track at Hampton University, began learning a second language in kindergarten.
Years after they first sat in Marnina’s classroom, this episode offered a rare opportunity to hear them reflect on what that experience actually meant to them and what, all these years later, has stayed with them.
For Marnina, one of the most powerful parts of the conversation was hearing former students describe, in their own words, outcomes that educators often discuss in research and theory. As a teacher, she often heard students express frustration that decisions were being made about them without their voices being part of the conversation. It was especially meaningful, then, to hear their experiences so closely reflect the ideas we have been exploring and to learn, directly from students, what they themselves see as important and worth uplifting.
Destiney said, “Learning a second language almost fundamentally changes your brain and how your brain works.”
All three young women also talked about learning another language from an early age as something that set them apart. Camryn talked about how it allowed her to appreciate other people’s lives and cultures from an early age. And Kaylin said, “That will always go on my resume—that I read, write and speak Spanish.”
I, the consummate language nerd, got distracted by something else: the words these young women used to describe their learning experiences in immersion.
Pay attention to the language:
Kaylin: “It’s still there, it’s still in me.”
Destiney: “It has given me a baseline that cannot be changed… It’s not just about learning Spanish. We did math, culture, dances, foods—engrossed in the culture.”
Destiney also described learning a language from such a young age as being “more about consuming the subject, live in it, not just memorize it.”
Camryn echoed that idea even more strongly, sharing “You have to consume it. Actually, it has to consume you.”
And Kaylin described it as something “instilled in me.”
In me. Engrossed. Consuming. Instilled.
They weren’t describing Spanish as something they had learned and stored away. They were describing something that had become part of them.
During the interview, I summarized what I was hearing as an “elevated learning experience, next level.” But the more I reflect on their words, I don’t think elevated quite captures it.
It sounds deeper. Broader. Wider.
Almost like diving beneath the surface of language and learning and becoming immersed in everything that exists underneath.
And then Kaylin said something that has really stuck with me.
In her social circle, an educational experience like hers was “unheard of.”
Why?
I know bilingual and multilingual education exist around the world, with very different levels of access and systemic support. But Kaylin’s comment left me wondering: Who gets access to language-rich, immersive educational experiences like this? Who doesn’t? And is that something we need to address—as a profession, as a country, and perhaps as a global community?
My brief answer is yes.
And here’s why.
What Does Cultural Literacy Mean to You?
When we asked Marnina’s former students what cultural literacy meant to them, their answers were strikingly simple.
Destiney described it as “stepping out of your shoes, and wondering how other people do it.”
Kaylin said, “Understanding that people do things differently than your culture. If people would just understand we’re different, it’s okay.”
And then Marnina noticed something important about their experience. Exposure to different cultures from such a young age meant that difference had simply become normal.
“That’s just a thing that humankind gets to be a part of,” she reflected. “It’s really, really powerful.”
I keep coming back to that.
What happens when difference becomes normal from an early age?
Maybe cultural literacy isn’t only something we can teach students about. Maybe it can become part of how they encounter the world. And, in turn, it can help them become more empathetic global citizens who approach others with curiosity, openness, and a willingness to understand.
What’s Missing With AI?
Of course, our show would be remiss if we didn’t touch on artificial intelligence. And since we had three young adults sitting in front of us, we wanted to know what they thought.
Their responses were probably the biggest surprise of the entire interview for me.
Kaylin wasn’t anti-AI. She saw its usefulness as a tool. But when she talked about relying on it to do the work of thinking and communicating in another language, she said:
“The soul is missing.”
And then she said something else that stayed with us. That ability, she argued, should exist in “your own database.”
That takes me right back to consume.
As Camryn shared, “I’m gonna sit down, I’m gonna take my time, I’m gonna think about what I know, and if I need help, okay, sure.” But first, it’s important, as she shared, to sit down and take the time to actually take it in and try to communicate. To “have to want to be in it.”
These young women weren’t rejecting access to technology. They were distinguishing between having access to language and having language within you.
Between retrieving something and experiencing it.
Between knowing about something and allowing the experience of learning it to become part of you.
So maybe the lasting impact of immersion isn’t simply the Spanish these young women still know.
Maybe it’s curiosity. The confidence to communicate without having every word. The ability to encounter difference without immediately seeing it as a barrier. The desire to keep learning. The understanding that technology can support what we do without necessarily replacing what we need to develop within ourselves.
Maybe we started this conversation asking what Marnina’s former students had carried with them from their immersion experience.
But I’m beginning to wonder if even that question is too small.
Because when I listen to Destiney, Camryn, and Kaylin, it becomes difficult to separate what they learned from who they became as learners.
Perhaps that’s why I can’t stop thinking about the way they described it.
They consumed language, culture, and learning.
And somewhere along the way, it became part of them.
Dr. Liza Trejo is a Senior Professional Learning Specialist, and Marnina Falk Colman is a Learning Design Specialist at Avant Language.
