The article is devoted to the problems of foreign language education in linguistic universities, namely to promoting the students’ linguistic competence, which has been the most urgent in mastering the language as a means of communication. The research prompts the standards to progress the grammatical competence. In the current study, we make a hypothesis that, in contrast to traditional teaching approach, the communicative approach is supposed to be more effective in teaching grammar and helps students to master the language and upgrade their linguistic competence in comprehending and processing spoken and written texts and become professionals after graduating the University. In the experiment two groups of students were involved: one using traditional approach to learning grammar at the classes and the other practising communicative language teaching approach. In total 79 bachelor’s degree students of Kyiv National Linguistic University (Ukraine) took a tentative course in grammar. The current study testifies the effectiveness of the communicative approach to studying grammar structures as a way to develop the linguistic competence of students and to help them to acquire proficiency level for achieving success in real communication.