This paper is based on the analysis of some 了 mistakes made by students who used Integrated Chinese as their textbook.It first reviews this popular textbook regarding the teaching of 了 and then makes some specific recommendations about the pedagogy of this challenging particle.It further proposes that some major linguistic features of the Chinese language be incorporated in textbooks so as to help student better navigate in their learning odyssey and to pre-empt the occurrence of 了-related errors as much as possible.