When I was in elementary school, we often did some exercises about synonyms&antonyms on Chinese course. This is a traditional way of getting the students more familiar with words in China in the 90s. However, according to my observation, this method was only used in courses concerning students' mother tongue, which is Chinese for me.
Through these exercises, we did have a better understanding of words and their usage.
As for foreign language learning, students often find it hard to pick up a proper word--especially an adjective--when they do the writing; or use one word simply in all needed places instead of using various words to make their composition colorful. I think one of the keys to this problem is to make them do the synonyms&antonyms exercises. With enough practice, I believe they will have a better use of the words they learned and make their composition less dull in terms of word using.
Synonyms&Antonyms
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2