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Homestay Pack Overview The Homestay English Activity Pack was designed to provide a mutual language learning tool for children, guides, and homestay families. The pack is totally self-contained, so visitors and volunteers participating in community-based tourism in a rural setting can use it with nothing more than the instructions provided. The pack is simple and straightforward enough that people without any prior teaching experience can use it effectively. The pack contains flashcards, activities, and games centered on relevant language, with topics like simple introductions and vocabulary-building activities with household objects. The activities are designed to be fun and engaging, ensuring total interaction between all parties. Some instructions have been translated into Thai to promote mutual language exchange, thus giving both the villagers and tourists a feeling of accomplishment. The Homestay English Activity Pack is targeted to teaching beginner-level English. The emphasis is on speaking using a communicative and interactive methodology. By using only practical vocabulary and simple grammar, the activities aim to give users the motivation and confidence to learn more language. How to Use This Pack Each activity is described in step-by-step detail and includes suggestions for further teaching. Flashcards are attached as an appendix and can be glued to cardboard or laminated for repetitive use. A feedback form is attached to help individual organizations further develop the pack. The homestay pack is intentionally small in size so as not to overwhelm short-term visitors or volunteers and homestay families. The Ideas for Expansion section offers ways to add to the pack, which could be beneficial for longer term volunteers wishing to provide extra English language content. Tips The Thai culture of 'losing face' can create difficulties when trying to teach English. A Thai person would rather keep quiet than attempt to say a word when they are less than 100% confident that they will say it correctly. Thus, it is essential to encourage the villagers to participate. This can be done by using hand gestures (i.e., miming "come to me"), eye movements, and nodding. Combining teaching English with learning Thai can also help to encourage participation as it breaks the ice and causes amusement when mistakes are inevitably made, and reinforcing the fact that language acquisition is not an easy task. The flashcards provided are examples of what we identified as relevant vocabulary to the homestay environment. These can easily be tailored for your own needs. Images help learners retain the language better, and this philosophy can further be applied by employing specific household objects as well as physical actions-visuals and physical response will help reinforce the new language. In fact, try and use actions to convey meaning and practical objects to illustrate new vocabulary as much as possible. This can also make the language exchange more fun and put the villagers at ease so they participate more. When working with children it is important to try and engage them as much as possible. They normally have limited time to practice English and are mostly taught by a Thai teacher. It is a great opportunity for them to listen to a native speaker and practice the language they know. The attention span of children can be limited so make sure activities are short and varied! When carrying out an activity it is important to demonstrate it clearly first. Due to limited vocabulary you can't just say in English what you want your hosts to do. You may have to demonstrate more than once to make the activity clear. Patience is essential along with clear and simple language.