The article discusses the ways of developing the grammatical direction in the methodology of teaching foreign languages in Europe from the period of Late Antiquity to the 19th century. Research materials are textbooks and teaching aids. Research methods are typological, chronological and comparative. The study showed that during this period there were original methodological concepts that developed and improved the concept of teaching from the Latin grammar by Aelius Donatus. The authors of these concepts, in an effort to intensify the learning process, created bilingual grammars that made it possible to conduct classes in the target language and combine language learning and speech learning, introduced exercises that ensure faster formation of sentence-building skills, included colloquial phrases and dialogues, tasks for compiling your own phrases and dialogues by analogy with them, as well as for dramatization. The study showed that in the context of the European linguodidactic tradition, there was a single path for the development of the grammatical direction in the teaching of foreign languages from Donatus to Seidenstucker. Each subsequent concept was built on the previous one, which indicates the continuity between them.