I don't think there are many people from my class who are able to use that massive knowledge of English in real communication. When you have gone through this kind of education, memorization becomes the ultimate goal and you don't think about actually using what you have input unless it's tested. We have to be aware that most students we get to teach have had some experience of the above ordeal. Vocabulary learning for these students is lists of words to memorize along with a single translation to be tested later. Short sentences will be good.
Students working in pairs learn so much from each other while searching for words.
Walk around the classroom and help any weak pairs. On a small card, give a small list of words in one category to one student and have him give hints for the rest of the group to guess the correct words. Better still, make the crossword puzzle into a pairwork. Student A has all the across words and Student B has all the down words and they give each other hints to solve the puzzle together. When they are used to beeping verbs, use the same activity for adjectives and adverbs.