This article examines how a shift in the language of teaching and learning can lead university lecturers of a series of disciplines to reflect on and innovate their teaching approaches. The article is based on a case study of a single university in the north of Italy which is gradually becoming a bilingual higher education institute. Through a thematic analysis of questionnaire and interview data collected from 53 lecturers who attended professional development courses designed to support them in this move, the authors demonstrate how for many lecturers this language shift has supplied an opportunity to collectively reflect on their pedagogic approach and become more aware of student needs, as well as their own. This study focuses on a single university, but it helps to elucidate the challenges, implications and also the potential that a language shift can bring. The findings propose that professional development to support lecturers should be designed to handle not only language needs but also to offer space for reflection on practice and to raise awareness of the ‘inherent multilingualism’ of higher education (van der Walt, Christa, 2013).