To some people’s surprise, the first word I uttered was neither “Mama” nor “Baba”. The word that celebrated my entry into the speech world was, guess what! “Toop” according to my mother. For those readers who do not know Persian! “Toop” is the equivalent of “Ball” in English. What was the first word you uttered? and have you ever tried to learn about it? I learned that my mother and older siblings spent most of the time playing ball games with me since I was 6 months old. Now as an expert in communication and language development, I believe this indicates that I was not among those babies being exposed to much language and probably Motherese. I wish there had been more child-directed speech there in my household. I was raised in a large family with 5 siblings all older than me. Barely can I remember any of my siblings, or my parents read me a Persian story in my early childhood let alone in another language. That said, my intention is not to criticize my family but rather to reflect on how early language experiences shape development and to appreciate the unique environment in which I grew up. 

I spent my whole schooling in state schools where teacher-centered education and summative assessments were the only options. To top it all off, I was bullied and mimicked sometimes later in secondary and even in high school by some of my classmates. I had a kind of speech motor problem which made it hard for me to speak confidently especially in groups of people both at school and home. I had only two close school friends with whom I never felt uncomfortable conversing during high school. I never told my family about those bullies and unfortunately, they never asked me if I had issues communicating with other peers at school. Like most families at that time, the transcripts at the end of the school year would matter to them. I am not blaming them. This is just to reflect on the challenges I faced and how they shaped my understanding of communication and language learning. 

My early experiences with second language learning as a child and teenager in Iran were quite limited and uninspiring. At the time, English was a required subject in secondary school (starting in grade seven), alongside Arabic. Today, English is an optional subject and may soon be replaced by Chinese, reflecting shifting political priorities. Perhaps one day, even globally, English could be overshadowed by Mandarin, Hakka, or Xiang—though likely not anytime soon. 

In school, my classmates and I were mostly passive learners. Our English teachers often taught in Persian, having us read the textbook aloud, one sentence or short paragraph at a time. The shorter the sentence, the less anxious we felt. After each passage came a long vocabulary list. One teacher, in particular, would repeat verbs with the "to" infinitive form multiple times—“To buy, to buy, to buy…”—as we repeated after him. He emphasized “to” so much that I wish he'd just handed us a list of infinitive and gerund verbs. It would have saved his voice—and made more sense to us.

Unfortunately, our learning was entirely rote-based. There was no pair work, no group discussion, no role play—nothing interactive or creative. Later in this paper, I’ll reflect on how this rigid approach shaped my perspective on language learning, and how discovering more effective, communicative methods transformed not just my English skills, but my life.

Since I was 10 to 23 years old, I tried different temporary jobs. By the time I started my former career as an EFL teacher, I had done farming, house construction laboring, and leaflet distributing, and I had been a cement firm’s foreman, a taxi agency’s manager, a bakery worker, and publishing firm’s worker, etc. Now, not only do I not complain or feel ashamed of choosing and doing each of those jobs but also, I am so proud of it. I gained a lot of valuable experience which helped me to be a well-rounded young man later providing me with a kind of tool kit employed in my teaching career as a successful English teacher who could develop rapport quite well with English learners from various socioeconomic levels and age range of 10-60sh. 

Besides doing various jobs, I was a school student who had moderate performance in summative assessments at school and a young boy who dreamed of being a famous soccer player. I would train soccer many hours a week and was sort of immersed in it and I could not allow myself to have the entertainments my peers had that time. Nevertheless, injuries did not let me have a stable position in my soccer team and I was fed up with epic injury times. To make it worse, my school performance was affected by my soccer training and work, and even after graduating from school, I tried the university entrance exam for 4 continuous years, but I was not admitted to a public university and if I had attempted to enroll on a non-governmental university, we would not have been able to pay the university tuitions. I almost gave up trying to find a place at a public university until the seventh term of an English course in a private English learning school where I fell in love with learning English.  

In 2009, I was advised to improve my English, as I was still pursuing my dream of becoming a famous soccer player—someone expected to communicate internationally. At 22, I enrolled in a basic English course. At the time, I could barely form a grammatically correct sentence in oral English. Still, I was eager and determined. I practiced for several hours a day, and with each term, I improved and grew more interested. Eventually, English learning became my passion, overtaking even my original dream of professional soccer.

I began skipping soccer practices to spend more time with English—sometimes practicing for 9 to 10 hours a day. The instructors at my language school were supportive and inspiring, far more so than any of my coaches. I still remember the first time I taught a 15-minute lesson in class. My teacher and classmates applauded me enthusiastically. Looking back, I realize the performance wasn't particularly strong, but my teacher likely saw the courage it took for me to step up. That moment was a turning point—it marked the beginning of my teaching journey.

Although the language program was designed to last 14 terms, I left halfway through. Financial constraints played a role, but more importantly, I felt the curriculum no longer met my needs. Still, I had set a personal goal. I decided to retake the university entrance exam to secure admission to a state university in my city.

Unlike earlier years—when I applied to university merely to follow my peers—I now had a clear academic and professional vision. This shift transformed higher education from a social expectation into a purposeful step toward my future.

After 8 months of self-study and devotion, I was prepared to do the entrance exam. In 2011, I sat the exam, and three months later, studying at a state university was not a dream for me anymore and I started studying for a degree In English translation at state Shahid Bahonar University which is ranked first in Kerman, Iran. From the first semester, I persevered in studying hard to gain a perfect GPA since I wanted to be among those students whose GPA was among the first 3 highest to join the master’s program 4 years later without having to take the master’s entrance exam. Thus, I tried to have both excellent formative and summative performance within eight semesters. I was always an active student keeping vigils studying and at the same time working as an EFL teacher teaching General English and IELTS preparation courses as a part-time job. I was among the top 10% top students, and I ranked third with an overall average score of 19.12 out of 20 among about 55 students with a few decimals difference from that of the first and second elite students. There was tough competition over the reward. Now, I was eligible to join the master’s program in Linguistics with no gap in between, in 2015, and of course I was the happiest student ever then.     

When I began my master’s program, I remained highly motivated and had already set clear academic goals. I was eager to deepen my theoretical understanding of language learning and instruction by engaging with scholarly articles and textbooks, with the ultimate goal of becoming a more effective teacher. I was also drawn to research in EFL and linguistics and committed myself to earning high GPAs in preparation for future doctoral studies.

In my second semester, I discovered my research interest in working with cochlear implant (CI) recipients, which became the focus of my master’s thesis. The project was both intellectually rewarding and logistically demanding, taking 16 months to complete. Despite the challenges, it was an invaluable experience. I gained meaningful insights into second language acquisition among hearing-impaired learners—students who were remarkably intelligent, motivated, and eager to learn English.

Conducting this research also required navigating considerable institutional bureaucracy. For example, to observe my female participants in their schools, I had to complete extensive paperwork and negotiate the purpose of my study with numerous stakeholders for each site.

Later, in 2022, I used this thesis as the basis for my preliminary research submission when applying to the Ph.D. program in Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences and Disorders at the University of Kansas. Looking back, although the process was challenging, it shaped me as both an educator and a researcher and deepened my passion for language learning and communication sciences.