Our children were 12, 10 and seven when we moved from Somerset to their mother’s country, Italy, last summer. Until then, they had always lived in England, and their English was what you would expect: the odd spelling mistake, but otherwise fluent and full of pre-teen playground slang.

Now, in Parma, barely a day goes by when they don’t inadvertently say something odd: “Mum, I’m eshing [going out]”; “Can we eat pesh? [fish]”; “I’ve scritten [written] to Grandpa”; “Can you accorten [shorten] my trousers?”; “Have you chiused [closed] the door?”; “Shut up, I’m parling [talking]”; “I’ve strapped [ripped] the page”. Every time it happens we laugh about our private pidgin, called – take your pick – “Engaliano” or “Italish”. But behind the laughter is mild astonishment at the speed at which children can overlay and overlap languages in an intelligible way.

What’s breathtaking isn’t just their language acquisition, it’s the way their personalities subtly mutate and shift. Benedetta, a bruiser at the best of times, is strangely sweet and gentle in Italian; Emma, our incessant court jester in English, is precise and serious; and Leo, who has always seemed stereotypically Italian, is even more boisterous. It feels as if our children are different, more mature, but also, because of linguistic struggles, somehow more infantile or vulnerable.

Until recent decades, bilingualism was deeply frowned upon and considered deleterious to development. The received wisdom for much of the 20th century was that there was really only space for one language in a child’s brain. It was thought that if, for example, immigrants maintained a mother tongue at home, it would impede integration at school and probably lead to academic regression and confusion.

However, recently, academics have been suggesting that, far from being a hindrance, exposure to more than one language could offer a distinct advantage. Aptitude tests revealed that bilinguals were marginally more competent at problem-solving, meta-linguistic awareness, and symbol manipulation.

Along with a host of other research, implied in the results is an ability to empathise, to see a situation from another’s perspective. It is, perhaps, obvious that if you’re habitually changing your language to accommodate the interlocutor and their context, you’re inevitably going to be used to taking into account other people’s abilities and points of view. It’s called, in the technical jargon, "code-switching," the most famous example of which came from Charles V, the pan-European emperor of the 16th century: “I speak Spanish to God, French to men, Italian to women, and German to my horse.”

In November last year, there was a good news story that almost sank without trace. It wasn’t just uplifting because a school in London was the first non-independent school to top the league table. What made it remarkable was the fact that 96% of students were EALs (speaking “English as an additional language”). Here, it seemed, was proof of what academic research had been saying for years: that the maintenance of a “home language” may be beneficial for learning the “community language”, that proficiency in that first tongue enables proficiency in the next. Antonella Sorace is the director of Bilingualism Matters, a research and information centre at the University of Edinburgh that promotes multilingualism in Scotland and across the globe. “For decades,” she says, “there was this notion that learning two languages together, or too soon, would affect children. It would cause problems at school. That’s always the message that parents got, but there’s absolutely no evidence of that; in fact, quite the opposite. ”

In another language, you don’t just learn new words, or sounds, but new notions. It’s like putting on different spectacles and seeing the world with different eyes. You gain a different perspective and sometimes, if you’re lucky, you become more, rather than less, eloquent.

Adapted from The Joys and benefits of bilingualism, by Tobias Jones.

2. Match the words with their meanings:

1. subtly

2. vulnerable

3. impede

4. eloquent

A. suffered

B. secure

C. tender

D. slightly

E. unguarded

F. interfere

G. oppose

H. well-spoken

I. wealthy

J. impressive

3. What are the three benefits listed in relation to language acquisition?

4. What does the phrase "you don’t just learn new words, or sounds, but new notions" refer to, and how can you relate, your own journey learning English, to this concept?

A. decorated

B. weird

C. satisfied

D. added monthly

2. What is the meaning of unsettling?

A. disturbing

B. moved away

C. a harmless thing

D. church-related

3. What evidence in the text can be related to the following concept?

Variation: when differences exist within a language, and how speakers of a given language are generally able to understand each other...

4. Which statement best defines the phrase "It’s like putting on different spectacles and seeing the world with different eyes."

A. Language acquisition is important

B. Language acquisition can be blurry at times

C. It provides insight to words and meaning

D. Through language acquisition, you gain a different perspective all together