Hi, I’m Alessia and I love helping children and adults acquiring or learning languages.
I grew up bilingual with Italian and Venetian and in my 20s I discovered the passion for languages and language learning. I speak English, French, Spanish, German and – to some extend – Flemish. I can understand other languages too, like Swiss German, some Norwegian and Portuguese. Why do I know so many languages? I wouldn’t say I have a talent for languages, I just found my own way to make language learning a fun process, and to star to have casual conversation with locals is the best part of it.
I have a decade research experience in Bilingual Acquisition. In 2022, I completed a PhD in Linguistics for the University of Zurich, with a thesis on Multilingual Acquisition, Dyslexia and Developmental Language Disorders. I have a Communication master degree, where I’ve studied Psychology, Semiotics and Sociolinguistics. I am a certified teacher of Italian for foreigners and I have been teaching in different countries and with different classrooms for over 15 years. I have also some experience as translator, as communication analyst and as a journalist.
I am a mum of three energetic multilingual children – 11, 8 and 4 years old – who are growing up with Italian, Flemish, French and English. At the dinner table, we speak and switch four languages, but when we have friends over the languages can became 8 or 9. The multilingual family life is full of challenges and adventures. My children have taught me everyday life multilingualism and how children idiosyncrasies can sometimes clash with research findings. You can be the best linguist ever but if you don’t know what is parenting, it can be tricky to raise your chid bilingually or multilingually.
Multilingual LAND
I founded Multilingual LAND as a passion project that unifies my academic knowledge, my extensive experience in applied linguistics and my motherhood practise. With the families I am work with, I apply the research method of my own ph.D work, my psycholinguistics skills and hands-on experience.
Our aim is to promote multilingualism around the globe and to support families raising children with two or more languages.
Our network
In Multilingual LAND, we are surrounded by professionals. My collaborators and friends are bilingual speech-therapists, psychologists, language teachers, school educators, neuropsychologists, neurolinguists, linguists, academics and other child-related professionals. As an old African proverb says, we believe that in order to raise a multilingual child you need a multilingual “land” (originally, a village). Therefore an important part of our work is to offer useful contacts, to help you connect with them, and to mediate with health professionals or educators.
My engagements
Affiliated Partner (partner convenzionato) at Bimbi Italiani, Bangkok
Italian teacher at UTL, Université du Temps Libre Landes Côte Sud, Soustons
Member of Bilingualism Matters, Edinburgh
Member of Euskal Babel, Bayonne