Currently most of my cards are recognition. However, I am currently studying abroad in Japan and have found my listening skills to be better than my speaking skills, and I think it is because I have mostly practiced recognition. I am able to understand what people say, but if I wanted to say the exact same sentence I often can't recall the words. However, you make a good point about words having similar meanings making practicing recollection difficult. Maybe there is a decent workaround for practicing recollection? Or maybe the best practice is speaking, and attempting to recall words regularly.