Students with a basic knowledge of the structure and vocabulary need to submerge their book knowledge and concentrate on communicating. In other words, students need to practice using the language without thinking of its structure. They need to think of ideas and communicate them, using the syntax as if it were second nature. I have developed a nice little activity that has students laughing and racing to better vocabulary acquisition, and at the same time gives them plenty of practice with circumlocution. Because this game is a fast-paced one, students don't have the time to concentrate on structure.
Structure is submerged and the goal of communicating an idea becomes paramount.
There is very little preparation for this activity. If your classes are like mine, you probably have some sort of vocabulary list for the students. Make sure that the students clearly understand the words on the list, and make sure that the words are defined in English. After the student have the lists and have had a fair amount of time to study them, divide the class into groups of 4 or 5. One person should be selected as the speaker for the group, and one person should keep score.