Game of Thrones in the language classroom

Game of Thrones seems to be everyone´s favourite these days. How can we, as EFL teachers, tap into it? Here are different options:

– Create a family tree and the different connections that exist between the families in the film.
– Describe a specific family and their motivation to get to the throne, their history, their enemies and the source/sources of conflict between them.
– Choose your favourite episode or season and retell it from the beginning to the end. Explain why you´ve chosen it.
– Choose a character and describe his/her personality traits, physical characteristics, ambitions, beliefs, etc. Compare it with another or other character(s) in the TV series.
– Imagine a different ending for one of the episodes/seasons. Explain why it would make a more thrilling ending.
– For those highly motivated students, it´s not a bad idea to read George RR Martin´s books and compare them to the TV series.

All of these tasks can be both oral and/or written and can be done individually or in pairs. In a big class, there can be groups dealing with different families and students can even be asked to stage a scene from the series or books.

Of course, students must watch the TV series in ov (original version). Depending on their level, they could watch them without subtitles or with subtitles in English or in their first language. There are very good websites such as www.mejorenvo.com that can make that a reality.

PREPARATION

Students can and should get information from specialized websites such as:
http://collider.com/david-benioff-db-weiss-interview-game-of-thrones/
http://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones#/
http://viewers-guide.hbo.com/

And they may also want to watch interviews with the creators and the cast:

George RR Martin
Benioff and Weiss
Cast

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