I have been in a Japanese conversation group for about a year and am now looking for a book that I can bring to the group to help add some structure to my sessions.

Background: In the first 6 months of the group I was glad simply to have sessions with the native speakers. But then I felt that the sessions were getting repetitive. So I started bringing in specific grammar points that I wanted to practice with people, and that was useful too. But not all my language partners feel comfortable practicing grammar points.

In terms of my level, last december I passed the JLPT N4 and am currently studying for the JLPT N3. In terms of a self-assesment of my speaking ability, using the ILR Speaking Self Assesment (http://www.govtilr.org/Skills/speakingassessment.pdf) I score myself at S-2. I flunk the first question of S-3: "I feel that I have a professional command, rather than just a practical one, of the language."

I don't think there are any books specifically for this, but why don't you email to the group immediately after each session a simple topic you will focus on next lesson with a few questions, so that everyone can prepare something to answer and the conversation can go from there. It would be best to keep the questions specific as possible to avoid everyone preparing in too much different ways and confusing each other e.g:

Topic: Idol groups
Sub-questions:
- What is you're favourite idol group and why?
- Do you know the lyrics of their songs and do you think they are helpful for studying with?
- Do you think idols are sometimes exploited and does this stop you from enjoying them?
- Why do you think Japanese idols are so different from Western pop groups?

I guess you could get everyone do briefly state their opinion on each question, one question at a time, and then encourage some free debate, then move onto the next when people are beginning to struggle and run out of stuff to say. And then after getting through all the questions, more freely discuss the overarching topic.