| Abstract: | In so-called ‘integrated’ audio-visual language courses, still pictures (ie slides, film stills, flannel board figures, drawings photographs, etc) have two possible functions: firstly, they simu- late the enunciative aspects of communication n i a foreign language, and secondly, they serve as equivalents to the foreign linguistic signs used i n this communication. The first of these functions consists of an artificial reproduction at a classroom level of the non-linguistic environments in which these foreign forms can be used. The second function is a kind of transcoding system, which works in a visual manner on the meanings of these linguistic forms. These two functions, each in accordance with their own particular characteristics, have the effect of providing an interpretation to the foreign expressions and thereby precluding the necessity of any direct translation into a level of language known to the class. |
