Getting in a word

Please help me make the paragraphs below sound natural. Thanks a lot.

On March 10, in the beginning of this semester, there was a group of about 30 students of a Danish senior high school, Allerod Gymnasium, visiting several high schools here in our city as a cultural exchange activity. As our school was their final stop, we also arranged for the same number of students to give our distinguished guests a cordial reception. After making a presentation and showing them around our campus, students were assigned to have a pair work for free talk. After an exchange of civilities, I found most of you have trouble getting in a word during the discussion or introducing a subject into a conversation, leaving a dull moment that led to an embarrassment.

Viewing the awkward situation, I stepped forward bravely weaving myself among the crowd to make sure whether the communication goes smoothly between each pair, trying to make them lead to a longer conversation by giving them an occasional prompt, such as topics on soccer, hobby, favorite food, book, singer, movie, actor/actress, school life, etc. However, limited by students’ blunt presentation skills and stiff English-speaking ability, most students couldn’t express themselves freely. It was a pity I failed to help make the activity of ideas interchanging come alive.