Packing and Unpacking Grammar – Towards a Communicative Approach to Teaching Language Structures

Creating classroom activities which really get students to communicate in a natural and meaningful way remains a timely challenge when it comes to teaching a foreign language. This article sets out to revisit the traditional trifecta based on the three Ps (presentation, practice, production) and reincorporate it in a set of specific elements that ensure a successful outcome of language learning activities. With particular focus on grammar, the paper aims to deconstruct the steps and procedures behind five important aspects to be taken into consideration when planning and conducting activities that target structures of language and their practice in a communicative manner, with the ultimate goal of linking the often sterile theory of grammar with contextualized models and tasks.