Abstract:

Over the past 30 years the international community of teaching English as a second language has prioritized communicative language teaching over other methods in a traditional face-to-face classroom setting. Certain communicative language teaching techniques have proved their applicability in e-learning as well.

The main objective of the paper is to study advantages and disadvantages of activities used in grammar-translation method and communicative language teaching in an online course of the English grammar. The present research reports the results of 53 undergraduate students of an online translation course.

The methods of the research combined both quasi-experimental and reflective approaches. A thorough analysis of the students' progress based on continuous assesment enabled to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of traditional grammar-translation and communicative approach in teaching grammar in virtual learning environment.

The study revealed that communicative approach can add value to the acquisition of English grammar skills, although due to a limited character of online use communicative activities need to be combined with traditional grammar-translation approach. The paper discusses opportunities, challenges and prospects of communicative and grammar-translation approaches in teaching English grammar in e-learning.

Keywords:

Communicative language teaching, grammar-translation method, e-learning, teaching english, teaching grammar.