Thanks for your input. I should clarify that we do have two textbooks, a functional language student textbook and a grammar book. 2 hrs. of each day is devoted to basic grammar structures which correlate to the functions in the student textbook. I switch it around where some days I teach the grammar first and then we move into the text, then vice versa the next day. They have weekly grammar and book tests to check comprehension. Despite the heavy 'book work', I try to make the lessons relative to the outside world. Problem is, they want this but they don't see the correlation. They hate memorizing; I get the impression they just want me to give them pat structures that work in every situation.