The definition drill for Language Learning.

Speaking is the capacity to express ideas, concepts,  in a clear and direct way. The goal of studying languages is to acquire the facility to express what we have in our minds.
The definition drill gives student the oportunity of expressing an idea in the target language. If the idea or concept is well expressed, the listener can understand what the speaker is trying to say.

In the definition drill, a student is given a set of words. She chooses one without saying which it is and then proceeds to define it. At first simple nouns will do:
Chair
Carpet
Hat
Bank
increasing the difficulty to
Skin
Throat
Idea
and then going on to verbs like
To come
To sign
To sleep
To kill
Using the definition drill, students have to become wordsmiths, lexicographers, trying to define a term using simple and few words. No examples are accepted in definitions.
Try this definition drill with your more advanced students. I employ it often with satisfactory results. Give them a time limit for classmates to discover the word the "lexicographer" is trying to define.