Being a homestay host family or teacher is an excellent choice for individuals from all walks of life. Whether your primary aim is to earn extra income, embrace a more flexible way of working or enhance your own experiences and cultural awareness. The homestay experience is a two-way exchange that is beneficial for all parties involved.
For those who have decided that hosting homestays is right for them, finding a teaching style that works will not only improve the experience you deliver but boost your success rate to attract more homestay guests.
There are a number of tools and techniques that you may want to explore when teaching and supporting your homestay guests. With so many to discover, devising a syllabus that works for both host and student isn’t easy. But deciding whether a formal or informal homestay teaching style is right for you is a great place to begin. Read on to discover the pros and cons of each.
Going formal with your teaching
For homestay teachers with professional qualifications, a more formal approach provides the basis they need to meet the targets they’ve set for themselves and their students. Whether you have formal teaching qualifications or not, there are several formal methods that can help strike the right balance between accuracy and fluency.
Repetition is an important aspect of practicing and absorbing a new language both in traditional classroom environments and immersive homestay settings. Memory challenges and other activities offer great language learning tools. Learning through games is another route recommended for the development of skills in a fun and positive way.
PrepScholar details why using games to learn English and other languages is so accurate. They even suggest how to choose the best language learning game for you and your students:
“First things first, an English-learning game must be accurate to be effective. All grammar structures it uses should be grammatically correct, and all vocabulary words should be spelled and defined correctly. If there are any problems or inaccuracies in the game, it’s better to avoid it. Using a game with problems like these means you’ll end up learning incorrect information! So always look for a game that’s highly reviewed and has impeccable English. If you or someone you know is creating a game, make sure you have multiple people check and double-check that the English in it is correct. I suggest getting a native English speaker to look over any games or learning materials you make.”
Embracing informality during your homestay
In addition to using more formal but fun, activities to prepare your students for the adoption of an entirely new language, using first-hand, informal experiences to consolidate skills is essential. One of the many benefits of hosting homestays is that you can have the best of both worlds.
As a homestay host, you can facilitate a relaxed, supportive learning environment within your home and take lessons outdoors to ensure your students can practice, practice and practice some more. Homestays are about more than just language learning. Your guests are there to experience the culture that accompanies a language, for a deeper learning experience.
Mix home-based learning sessions with field trips to local attractions and events to guarantee the ultimate homestay teaching style.
