In this paper, Colina addresses some issues concerning the applicability of communicative competence as developed in the field of second language acquisition to the translation classroom. The goal of communicative translational competence, she argues, is to foster a more sense-oriented approach to translation that would address the traditional weaknesses of the novice translator, such as the tendency to ignore “the global, textual, and pragmatic considerations used by professional translators". Furthermore, the author demonstrates how such translational competence can be encouraged in the classroom by providing a well-structured lesson plan.