Andrea Briselli (MA in Translation) is an Adjunct Professor of English and Italian as a foreign language at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Originally from Italy, he has taught at several universities and language schools, such as New York University Florence, Unicollege SSML, ISI Florence and International House in Milan and La Spezia, his hometown. He is Delta and CELTA certified at IH London, and CEDILS certified at Università Ca’ Foscari, Venice.

             

 

Brief introduction

Teaching a foreign language to learners who share your same native language is already a challenge on its own, but take up teaching your L1 to international students, and that is when you really step up the game: will your brain get messed up in the process, or will you be able to carry on both things smoothly?

In my case, not only did it work, but it has also improved my language awareness in many ways.

 

A little bit of background

In 2022, I had been active in ELT for some years, both as a private teacher and as an adjunct professor of English in a language faculty, when I became interested in teaching my L1 (Italian) to international students. As a matter of fact, when you live in Florence, you are literally immersed in an international scenario, with students coming from all over the world to spend semesters or full academic years abroad in one of the most beautiful and artistic cities in the world. In particular, the city of Florence hosts a huge number of campuses of important American universities, whose students have the chance to pursue their academic path while learning the Italian language under the supervision of the local faculty. I was already living there, so the idea of teaching in one of these schools, together with my passion for language teaching, is what really pushed me to break out of my comfort zone.

 

Main takeaways

Fast forward a couple of years, and here I am after earning additional certifications and collaborations, balancing these two roles: today, I can confidently affirm that I would feel almost empty if I had to stop doing one of the two. Here are some of the main takeaways I got during my years of dual teaching, from both a theoretical and practical point of view:

Dual teaching is a two-way mirror

My dual role of English teacher to Italians and Italian teacher to international students creates a constant contrastive dialogue, both for me and my classes. In fact, this perspective allows me to turn possibly trivial grammar points, vocabulary items or cultural notes into reflective moments which make the lesson ever more engaging and effective.

For example, a simple classroom anecdote with an Italian learner confusing the English word “actually” with the Italian “attualmente” (instead of “in realtà” or “a dire il vero”) can spark an exploration of false friends between English and Italian (e.g. “eventually”, “education”, “parents”, “pretend”, etc.), a topic my learners truly enjoy.

This two‑way dialogue has surely improved my own grammatical and cultural awareness, but it also empowers students to notice patterns and engage critically with language, allowing both groups of learners to benefit from a more meaningful communicative practice.

Translation as a teaching resource

Rather than considering translation as a mere exercise on its own, I have often employed micro translation tasks in the classroom to highlight collocations, register differences and cultural nuances between languages.

Depending on the course I am teaching and the language feature I want to address, I choose between texts which vary in length and content. For example, in my grammar courses I like to dedicate tasks to the translation of idiomatic phrases and expressions, another topic which my students seem to appreciate. While doing this, they find out that the literal translation of a sentence like “It’s raining cats and dogs” into Italian is impossible, so they have either to paraphrase it or to find the closest possible expression (which in this case would be something like “Piove a dirotto” or “a catinelle”).

On the other hand, when it comes to courses like English into Italian translation, students will benefit from the translation of longer texts like news articles or topic-based articles, which allow to focus on wider features like register and the use of specific grammar items (e.g. adverbs and possessive adjectives, which are more common in English rather than Italian).

Also, being an avid indie rock music listener, I have often used the lyrics of songs that I like as source texts that my students could work on to improve their translation techniques and raise their grammatical and language awareness (while also getting to know some good music: A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C. has often led to insightful conversations). This is only an example, but I recommend teachers to use things that they or their students personally enjoy creating similar tasks.

Reflecting on your own native language

It is often being said that knowing something does not necessarily mean being able to explain it to others. As a matter of fact, it is when you can illustrate a specific feature to somebody else, choosing your words depending on the level (both linguistic and cognitive) of your listeners in order to make it as clear as possible, that you can confidently say: “Yes, I do know what I’m talking about”.

Teaching Italian to learners coming from other Countries around the world has led me to reflect on grammar and vocabulary items that I had never considered so carefully before, and my explanation in the classroom has to change according to the students that I am teaching. For example, if I mention the masculine/feminine differentiation to French or German students, I know that they will grasp it immediately, but will it work with English native speakers, who may have never heard of this notion before? It is this kind of reasoning that has expanded my language awareness, thus leading my English teaching skills to benefit from it, too.

For my fellow Italian readers, just try to ask other Italian native speakers this (seemingly) trivial question and see if they can answer right away: what are the specific cases in which we use the article “lo” instead of “il”? Have fun.

 

Conclusion: a mutual enrichment

Teaching English and Italian as foreign languages to different groups of learners is not just two separate jobs: it is a mutually beneficial practice, which enriches teacher and students alike. So far, my work inside the classroom has allowed me to make national and international acquaintances and friendships which I hope will last in time, enriching me both as a professional language teacher and as a person.

While waiting for whatever comes next, I can say that when two classrooms of this kind interact with one another, everyone’s language learning journey becomes richer and way more exciting.

 

Please check the Pilgrims in Segovia Teacher Training courses 2026 at Pilgrims website.