The development of students’ grammatical competence remains a key objective in teaching English as a foreign language, particularly in contexts where substantial structural differences emerge between Ukrainian and English. Effectively overcoming cross-linguistic interference requires the implementation of new cognitively-oriented methodological approaches. The purpose of this article was to investigate the pedagogical potential of translation exercises in raising metalinguistic awareness and developing the grammatical competence of future philologists. To achieve this objective, a quasi-experimental mixed-methods research design involving 24 (first- and second-year) students at Khmelnytskyi National University was employed, combining pre-test and post-test assessments with the analysis of reflective journals. The instructional framework integrated elements of contrastive analysis, collaborative translation, and back-translation within task-based pedagogy. The specific characteristics of typical grammatical transformations were analysed, focusing on voice shifts, word order transformations, nominal-verbal restructuring, additions and omissions, and article-related structures. It was established that the systematic use of targeted translation tasks leads to a substantial improvement in learners’ linguistic accuracy, raising the average test score from 55% to 81%. It was proven that translation-based activities stimulate deep cognitive processing of material and activate the Noticing Hypothesis in second language acquisition. A four-stage pedagogical model for integrating translation exercises into practical grammar instruction was developed and theoretically justified. It was found that the proposed tasks effectively transform students’ intuitive inner translation into conscious analytical language awareness. The research results can be directly utilised by university lecturers and methodologists to modernise curricula for practical English grammar