What do we teach when we teach translation?

Significant theoretical issues give a framework to the didactics of translation by setting the appropriate socio-cultural background and by defining prospective approaches. Nonetheless, theories per se seem to be of limited help in sorting out the knotty problems posed by the text and by its transfer across linguistic and cultural boundaries. If textual transfer is to be seen as an act of making explicit different linguistic and cultural attitudes, then course planning, far from differentiating the phase I theoretical introduction from the phase 2 workshop, should consider developing a "practical2 theory of translation which aims at merging relevant domains such as contrastive text analysis, terminological issues, linguistic attitudes, and rhetorical conventions, with the aim of identifying effective translation processes.