The Grammar-translation approach, often referred to as a 'traditional' method of teaching foreign languages, relies on the formal teaching in the first language of grammatical rules, couched in metalinguistic terms. Learners are then expected to apply the rules in translation to and from the target language. It rose to popularity at the end of the eighteenth century and strongly influenced language teaching up until the late twentieth century.

This approach typically emphasizes explicit concept learning and deduction. Grammatical accuracy is given particular emphasis, with little attention to communication as the end goal. In this way, this approach aims to develop a strong conceptual knowledge of the target language. However, the only language skill developed is translation, often of a highly controlled nature. In terms of developing effective ability to use a second language, Grammar-translation has the following limitations:

• Few opportunities for proceduralization in communicative situations are provided.
• In any case, the complexity of the knowledge taught tends to prevent easy proceduralization and thus does not support natural use of a second language.
• It takes little account of ability to acquire second languages implicitly, in that there is little exposure to extended target language input.