New Approaches to Teaching Grammar (Lessons from Field-Testing Grammar Materials)

The article suggests a new perspective on teaching a foreign language grammar to non-language university students and analyses the ways of applying new approaches in the grammar section of a coursebook. The modern approaches to teaching grammar, cognitive communicative, and functional and pragmatic, demand new principles of selecting and presenting grammar patterns and require that exercises should focus on the use of grammar patterns in various registers and communicative situations, in speaking and writing. This is a paradigm shift from grammar-centered to communication-centered teaching, which entails a number of challenges. Field testing enables the author to remedy the weak points identified in the grammar materials and makes it possible for teachers to embrace the new concept as a result of getting hands-on experience.