Most TESOL educators would agree that, when faced with a choice between teaching grammar through direct instruction or through communicative
language teaching (CLT), the best way forward is to follow Azar’s (2007) conclusion: “Do both.”
However, in practice, many teachers end up overemphasizing grammar instruction—or instead, using a weak version of CLT based on the presentationpractice-production (https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teachers/knowing-subject/n-p/ppp) model. In these classrooms,
students may know a lot about grammar, but are often less successful when communicating in real-life situations.
Therefore, we advocate for a stronger form of CLT, which focuses on language acquisition through communicating and negotiating in authentic contexts
(Rousse-Malpat et al., 2022). We have found that project-based learning creates meaningful opportunities for multilingual learners of English to engage in
this more robust form of CLT. When our students use grammar to successfully complete real-world projects, we see enhanced motivation and improved
language acquisition. Article here