In the context of the English-Chinese undergraduate translation classroom, both instructors and students are familiar with the Micro (bottom-up) approach to the teaching of translation, which is largely associated with their mutual experience of learning a foreign language. However, this study argues that the Macro (top-down) approach can better provide a professional training for the students so that they are more prepared for the nonliterary translation of today. Thus, the goal of the study is to propose an integration of Micro and Macro approaches; it explores the students’ perceptions of these two approaches and their learning processes. The research was carried out from September 2007 to June 2008, and 49 students participated in the study. The Micro approach was employed in Semester One while the Macro approach in Semester Two. During the second phase, Newmark’s ‘A Textbook of Translation,’ which is translated into Chinese, was assigned to the class in order to facilitate the Macro approach of teaching. Data was collected by means of the instructor’s reflective journal, assessments of students and a survey, which was comprised of 5 open-ended questions. Content analysis was conducted to obtain major themes from the three forms of data. Results of the research show that, compared with the Micro approach, the Macro approach offered greater challenges to the students’ competence. Despite the difficulties, however, the majority of the participants improved and expanded their knowledge of translation to a greater extent than they did during the first semester. Hence, according to the findings, the Macro approach to translation teaching may have important implications for the teaching framework for undergraduates in an English-Chinese context.