ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the pedagogy and uses two examples of language and translation teaching undertaken with intermediate and pre-intermediate students of Italian in an American university. The group activities prepared for the session involved reflecting on the meanings expressed by a multimodal message composed of music, images and words and translating the verbal message from Italian to English. Before viewing the audiovisual text, the students reflect on the symbolic nature of images and music as well as their interrelationship in conveying meanings and evoking feelings and emotions. The students first view the entire presentation, and then read the text in pairs. Their reflections on the meaning-making process involved in the creation and interpretation of the multimodal message were elicited. The lecture concerns the role played by holistic cultural translation and symbolic competence in pursuing the goal of foreign language education today, namely translingual and transcultural competence.
