Learning Creative Writing by Translating Witty Ads

The aim of this paper is to present a student-centred methodology for teaching creative writing, which involves the presentation, examination, translation and writing of wordplay in English and Italian advertisements. The approach, design and procedures of the proposed method, as defined by Jack C. Richards and Theodore S. Rodgers (1986/2001), draw on the insights of Paolo Balboni (1998), Sonia Colina (2002) and Maria Gonzáles Davies (2004, 2005). After outlining the theoretical underpinnings of this study, the design and procedures implemented in the teaching of a four-credit module on inter-cultural mediation at undergraduale level are illustrated. Cross-linguistic analyses of a sample set of material consisting of English and Italian humorous ads, together with the production of original puns in the two languages and translations into and out of English, demonstrate the importance of the interaction between language and culture in creative copywriting and translation.