We were so surprised that there were sixteen students in our conversation club. Most of them are from Japan and China. We got more confidence from these amazing people to cure our discouragement from teaching grammar lab because they are so talkative and engaged. They changed their status so quickly after we asked and introduced them to class by nominating based on the name list showing on my screen. They were so cooperative with us. Sarah and I were secretly pleased to see that.

However, we were happy too early. Students were freer to talk and share with peers in their group work. When we asked them to share with the class, there was a silent break. Therefore, we called on students one by one. What I will change in this situation in the future is to write down their name according to a group and ask one of the members in each group to answer. Also, we can lead students to do it all together instead of assigning them to breakout rooms. They probably are lazy or tried to share twice. The part of storytelling and discussion was not going well because of that. We should not ask for volunteers because of the resistance mechanism. I believe it’s better to have a name list to let students clearly and directly see, so they know they need to answer anyway.

What we did well in this conversation club is to give students clear examples by cooperating and set models for them. What we need to improve is to ask open questions and find a comfortable way to interact and nominate students. What’s more, it is essential to build a connection and shorten the distance with students at the beginning of class. We should let students get to know us better at first and create a warm and friendly environment.