Here’s a little something written by Janice Holter Kittok to reflect on:
“We say we are not doing grammar-based teaching, yet major textbook publishers have not altered the basic scope and sequence in the last 50 years (a methodical grammar design). If we keep on doing what we’ve already been doing, we keep on getting what we already have – a tongue-tied America.”
http://asiasociety.org/education/chinese-language-initiatives/academic-rigor-and-student-engagement-perfect-match (scroll down to users’ comments)
Señora G 
Thanks for quoting me. This statement rings very true with teachers. Whenever I say it in a seminar, heads nod in agreement. We like to think we’ve set aside the grammar-based syllabus of 1960. Now most efforts are to take the grammar-based syllabus and attempt to make it communicative. It comes out being contrived and unnatural.
That is exactly what I’m trying to do with our current syllabus since all of the teachers in our department have to teach roughly the same thing so we can give common assessments, and it is just not working with this new communicative approach I am trying to achieve.