T: All right. Who can give me . . . er . . . a name of a great writer in the English-speaking world? In the English-speaking world? The name of a great writer. Right.
S1: Charles Dickens.
T: Charles Dickens. OK. What novel are we studying from Charles Dickens this year?
S2: [indistinct reply]
S3: A Tale of Two Cities.
T: A Tale of Two Cities. All right. We say that Dickens is a writer. Who can give me another name for the word ‘writer’ - a more specialized term for the word ‘writer’?
S4: Shakespeare. [indistinct reply]
T: Er . . Um. . . That’s not what I want. Shakespeare also is a great writer, but I want . . . Yes?
S4: Novelist?
T: A novelist. That’s what I want, Mazin. So I want the word ‘novelist’. So we have the word ‘novel’. [writes on blackboard] We say that A Tale of Two Cities is a ... ?
ss: Novel.
T: A novel. And the writer of A Tale of Two Cities is a . . . ?
ss: Novelist.
T: A novelist. [writes on blackboard] Is a novelist. OK. He said – was it you, Mazin, who said ‘Shakespeare’? Is Shakespeare also a novelist? Is Shakespeare a novelist?
ss: Yes.
T: Er no. I don’t agree with you. Shakespeare used to write plays. He used to write . . . ?
Ss: Plays.

T: Can you remember some of his plays?
S5: Hamlet.
T: Hamlet.
S6: As You Like It.
T: As You Like It. Fine.
S7: The Tempest.
T: The Tempest, fine. We say Shakespeare was a ‘play . . . wright’. [writes on BB] A playwright. Remember this is not ‘write’, W-R-I-T-E, This is playwright, W-R-I-G-H-T. A playwright. He was a writer of plays. Now about our great writer Tahaa Hussein, Tahaa Hussein. Who can give me one word to describe Tahaa Hussein? As many words as you can. Everybody knew him or nobody knew him or few people knew him? Who can give me a word to describe him?
SS: Blindness.
T: Er... blindness. Er . , . do we say Tahaa Hussein was blindness or Tahaa Hussein was . . . ?
S9: Blind.
T: Blind. OK. Tahaa Hussein was blind. I’m looking for a word to describe his fame. A word to describe his fame. So we say that he was a . . . ?
Ss: Popular.
T: Popular. He was . . . ?
Ss: Popular.
T: Tahaa Hussein was popular. Popular. All right, can you give me the name of a popular actor in Egypt? Popular actor in Egypt. Popular actor.