Synonyms teaching ideas

Are you familiar with the situation where students repeatedly use the same words, such as good, bad, big, and often add very for emphasis? This is a common issue that results in repetitive and unvaried speech. 

You might be wondering how to help them expand their vocabulary and express themselves more precisely, without burdening them with tedious word lists.

In this article, we’ll explore synonyms teaching ideas designed to seamlessly integrate synonym practice into your lessons, enabling your students to make noticeable progress in just a few sessions.

Knowing synonyms is essential for building a rich and expressive vocabulary, enabling students to articulate their thoughts eloquently and better understand native speakers. 

Instead of relying on repetitive phrasing, students can diversify their speech by incorporating a variety of words.

Studying synonyms also helps in grasping subtle differences in meaning. For example, the words "angry" and "furious" both describe the same emotion but vary in intensity.

Additionally, having a strong knowledge of synonyms improves reading comprehension, as students can recognise and understand different expressions.

Learning synonyms is particularly valuable during exam preparation, as tests like IELTS or CAE demand a wide-ranging vocabulary. Using synonyms effectively in writing and speaking can significantly contribute to achieving higher scores in such assessments.

Use this activity for synonyms to help students learn and consolidate synonyms while also improving their memory skills.

How to play?

Prepare a set of cards. On one card, write a word, and on a matching card, write its synonym, such as happy — satisfied.

Ensure the total number of cards is even — if you have 10 words, you’ll need 10 corresponding synonyms. 

Shuffle the cards and lay them face down on the table. Students take turns flipping over two cards at a time. 

If the word and its synonym match, the player keeps the pair. If they don’t match, the cards are turned face down again, and the next player takes their turn. 

The game continues until all pairs have been matched. The winner is the player with the most pairs at the end of the game.

If you prefer a digital version of the game, the online tool Flippity can be very useful. Select the Matching Game template, input the words and their synonyms, and your interactive cards will be ready in no time.

This synonym activity is ideal for expanding students' vocabulary and works equally well for individual or group sessions. 

It encourages students to recognise synonyms and understand their varying levels of intensity.

How to play?

Start with a base word, such as small, that students are already familiar with. The aim is for students to brainstorm synonyms that progressively increase in intensity. 

For example:

You can split the class into teams and have them compete to generate as many synonyms as possible. The team with the most accurate answers wins. 

This game is better suited for intermediate or advanced learners, but for lower levels, you could provide the words in advance and have students arrange them in the correct order.

Worksheets are an excellent resource for ESL lessons. 

They are primarily created by professional educators and can be effectively used with primary and secondary school students, as well as adults.

The Twinkl platform provides a wide variety of worksheets, featuring activities such as Matching Pairs, Fill-in-the-Blanks, and Sorting Tasks. To access them, simply visit the Twinkl website. 

Use the search bar to look for "synonym worksheets," select the one that suits your needs, download it, and print it. These worksheets can be used during your lesson as either a main activity or a supplementary one.

This is a versatile game that’s enjoyable for both younger pupils and teenagers. It adds an element of competition, which is always a great motivator for students to participate actively.

How to play?

Take turns reading words from a list of synonyms. For example, you might say joyful. Students then need to find the synonym to this word on their Bingo card and mark it. 

You can either create the Bingo cards yourself or use a website like My Free Bingo Cards if you’re teaching online. The first student to complete a row, column, or diagonal shouts “Bingo!” and becomes the winner.

As an extension, you can ask students to write sentences using the words they marked on their cards.

How to teach synonyms effectively? Here are a few tips I’ve gathered to engage your students.

Memorising long lists of words is not very effective, as students often forget them quickly. To avoid this, it’s important to show how and where synonyms are used in real-life situations. 

Context helps students not only remember the word but also grasp its meaning more deeply.

Use a variety of games that work well for different types of lessons. These are fun synonym activities that keep students motivated.

Writing essays and compositions plays a key role in exam preparation, so don’t skip written exercises. 

One useful way of teaching synonyms could be rewriting sentences or passages using more advanced synonyms. For instance:

The house was big and nice. The mansion was enormous and stunning.

Another effective idea is to provide a text with frequently repeated simple words, such as bad, good, or big, and ask students to replace them with more precise or descriptive synonyms.

Nowadays, there are countless online tools available to help you design tasks and even plan your lessons.

Platforms like Wordwall, Twinkl, or even ChatGPT and other AI tools can save you time while providing engaging and interactive resources for your teaching.

All in all, working with synonyms is a great way to develop not only students' vocabulary but also their linguistic intuition. 

With these games, activities and tips, your lessons will become more lively and varied, and pupils will be able to express themselves better, understand the nuances of meaning and write interesting texts.