Synonyms

[Noego]

As you know I'm teaching written English to my students.

Well, they have a hard time using synonyms in their text and this is something I definitely want to work on.

Do you have any fun activities that involves using synonyms for commonly used words?

I'm looking for something fun and interactive. A kind of activity where they would have to replace a certain word in a text with a synonym so that their text don't end up too repetitive.

I've browsed the web for a while but can't find anything.

Anyone?

[Soup]

There's a brainstorming game: write a word in the center of the board / paper and have the students in teams do word-associations (provide synonyms). Afterwards, have the teams use the words to build sentences that from a paragraph or a short (mini) story. It has worked well for my students.

[Noego]

Woah, that's a very good idea. Thanks a lot!

[mickel]

i have another good idia...but its bit tird...

from now on say the word then say all synonyms

i hope to like it

[Abstract Idea]

Oh, I thought Soup was back!
But then I realized this is an old thread - what a pity.
Anyway I think I have something to add:


On the Title of The Current Thread

Once I realized that you feel you are starting to learn a foreign language when you focus on synonyms. It is quite interesting to see you can say the same stuff in different ways in a certain language.

However, by reading many posts here at UsingEnglish, by studying some linguistics, and by reflecting a little bit on language, I came to know that there are really few , if any, true synonyms in a given language. The words carry some specific content one is able to grasp only through a continuous use of the language, dictionaries can't really exactly define words - of course considering the natural limitations, they do a great job.