diff --git a/fairseq/optim/fairseq_optimizer.py b/fairseq/optim/fairseq_optimizer.py
index 3242a92a35..b1b9c76edb 100644
--- a/fairseq/optim/fairseq_optimizer.py
+++ b/fairseq/optim/fairseq_optimizer.py
@@ -41,20 +41,24 @@ def optimizer_config(self):
     @property
     def params(self):
         """Return an iterable of the parameters held by the optimizer."""
-        for param_group in self.optimizer.param_groups:
+        for param_group in self.param_groups:
             for p in param_group['params']:
                 yield p
 
+    @property
+    def param_groups(self):
+        return self.optimizer.param_groups
+
     def __getstate__(self):
         return self._optimizer.__getstate__()
 
     def get_lr(self):
         """Return the current learning rate."""
-        return self.optimizer.param_groups[0]['lr']
+        return self.param_groups[0]['lr']
 
     def set_lr(self, lr):
         """Set the learning rate."""
-        for param_group in self.optimizer.param_groups:
+        for param_group in self.param_groups:
             param_group['lr'] = lr
 
     def state_dict(self):
@@ -73,7 +77,7 @@ def load_state_dict(self, state_dict, optimizer_overrides=None):
 
         if optimizer_overrides is not None and len(optimizer_overrides) > 0:
             # override learning rate, momentum, etc. with latest values
-            for group in self.optimizer.param_groups:
+            for group in self.param_groups:
                 group.update(optimizer_overrides)
 
     def backward(self, loss):