1
Bilingual Person Interviewed: Mahsa Zia Shakeri
Interview Sessions: Stephen Decatur Middle School
9815 Seahawk Rd.
Berlin, MD 21811
Wednesday, June 15, 2005 from 10:00 – 11:30
Thursday, June 16, 2005 from 11:00 – 12:30
***Click here to view a PowerPoint Presentation on Mahsa***
Mahsa Zia Shakeri, an eighth grade student at Stephen Decatur Middle
School was chosen for my ethnography project because she is the model
student. Mahsa demonstrates the level of success one can accomplish, in a
short amount of time, with determination, motivation, intelligence, and
support. Mahsa has evolved from non-English proficient to fluent-English
proficient in three years and will continue to thrive as her thirst for knowledge
increases. Mahsa was also chosen to be interviewed for purely, selfish reasons.
I was intrigued by Mahsa’s family and her determination. Also, I am not
knowledgeable when it comes to Iran and the Muslim religion. I viewed this
assignment as an opportunity to expand my horizons and better myself as an
individual, as well as a teacher, by learning about an unfamiliar culture and
country. I realized the importance of determination, motivation, and family
influences both inside the classroom and out. With the continued support from
her family, friends, and teachers, I am confident that Mahsa will succeed in all
2
aspects of her life and I am anxious to see how the world will change because
of her.
Mahsa Zia Shakeri was born on December 13, 1990 in Tehran, Iran.
Her parents, Saeed Zia Shakeri and Zahra Mojtabaei, were both ambitious
parents and well-educated in their professional fields. Her father worked as a
chiropractor, which he continued to pursue upon his arrival in the United
States. Her mother was a successful, nurturing mom who continues to attend
college to advance her knowledge. Mahsa grew up in Mashhad, Iran learning
from, and looking up to, her older sister, Shakila, who has now graduated from
high school and is continuing her education at Salisbury University. Although
she was born in Tehran, Mahsa spent the first eleven years of her life living in
Mashhad, Iran before moving to the quaint town of Berlin, Maryland. There,
Mahsa’s father joined her uncle, who worked as a chiropractor. Mahsa’s
parents had dreamed of moving to the United States since the birth of their
first daughter in 1985, with the hope of providing them with a quality
education. Mahsa has begun to realize how lucky she is to have supportive
parents who value education. She appreciates the sacrifices they have made in
order to provide their daughters with an education and she does not want to
disappoint them.
Mahsa began her education at Berlin Intermediate School in Berlin,
Maryland, on December 14, 2001, one day after her eleventh birthday and two
3
weeks after arriving to the United States, as a linguistic minority. Knowing
only two words, dog and apple, she relied on her peers to help her adjust to her
new school and way of life. Not only was Mahsa unfamiliar with the language,
she was also unfamiliar with the culture. There were many obstacles that
needed to be overcome, and differences that needed to be addressed, in order
for Mahsa to be successful and acclimate to life in the United States and in
school. Mahsa attended a small, all-girls’ school in Iran where she was
expected to wear a uniform consisting of a head wrap. Teachers were
permitted to hit their students as punishment and assigned numerous hours of
rigorous homework each night, especially on weekends. Imagine Mahsa’s
surprise when she began school in the United States with co-ed classrooms, no
uniform policies, and received only a couple hours of homework each night,
minimal considering the expectations in Iran. Besides the cultural differences,
Mahsa also had to learn a new alphabet and had to train her eyes to scan text
from left to right instead of from right to left. Mahsa’s flexibility and openmindedness helped prepare her for the challenges of learning a new language.
According to the inner function of bilingualism, Farsi is Mahsa’s
primary language. Although she is currently capable of speaking English
fluently, she talks to herself, writes diary entries, curses, and occasionally
dreams in Farsi. When Mahsa first began her journey towards learning
English, her language deficiency put her at a disadvantage as well as an
4
advantage, when compared to English Language Learners from other cultures.
Many English Language Learners in today’s society live in neighborhoods with
people from their native-country and attend schools with students who speak
the same native-language. It is not as critical for these English learners to
integrate in to the culture and learn English because they already have a
support group in their native language. Mahsa, however, was unable to
communicate or understand anyone outside of her family so she was forced to
learn the English language quickly in order to make the transition smoother
and more tolerable. Leki says that, “the most powerful factor in determining a
learner’s ultimate language achievement…is motivation.” She continues on
saying, “the more motivated the learner is, the more likely the learner is to
spend time interacting with the target language and the more proficient the
learner will become.” Mahsa exemplifies this quote and demonstrates to
witnesses that a lot of motivation can go a long way. Surprisingly, Mahsa’s
motivation would be considered instrumental, according to Leki. She does not
necessarily have a desire to integrate into the English language’s discourse
community although she is not completely avoiding it. On the other hand, she
has the desire to learn English in order to accomplish some other goal. Mahsa
was extremely clear in that she would be returning to Iran after completing
college to live and to be a pediatrician or an ophthalmologist. She informed me
that learning English in the United States is extremely popular and is key to
5
being successful in Iran. Mahsa was motivated to learn the language for
extrinsic, as well as intrinsic, rewards. First of all, research has shown that
“people become bilingual because they want to speak the language of power.”
In the United States, English is considered the common language of the
people, or the language of power. Because of this, Mahsa’s father was highly
motivated to learn English. His family’s well-being depended on his ability to
provide for them by becoming a successful chiropractor in an English-speaking
society and he communicated this importance to his family. In school, English
was the language of power for Mahsa also. She wanted to be able to
understand and to be aware of lessons and activities in class. She would
review assignments each night with a bilingual dictionary in an attempt to
construct meaning and to increase English exposure even though she could not
understand any of the English words. Aside from school work, Mahsa’s
mother encouraged her to memorize fifteen English words each night and then
tested her on the words. Socially, Mahsa was starved for friends but needed to
learn how to communicate with them. Then there was the issue of her
younger cousins. Her uncle’s two sons with an American wife were
monolingual in English, so, for Mahsa to communicate with this side of her
family, she needed to learn English. Mahsa’s family was also living with her
uncle at this time so she was constantly exposed to English even if she wasn’t
actively making meaning of the utterances. In the back of her mind, Mahsa
6
was motivated to learn English because she saw it as a means to an end. She
knew she would be able to return to Iran and find a good job if she were
bilingual in Farsi and English. Because of these factors, Mahsa concluded that
it was necessary to learn the English language so she dedicated her free time
to activities that would enhance her language learning.
Mahsa became involved in hobbies and organizations outside of her
comfort zone in order to interact with native English-speaking individuals and
to improve her English skills. She took piano lessons with an English teacher
and she joined a county field hockey team. She was an extrovert, easily
making friends with her native-English speaking peers and trying out the new
language, not focusing on the mistakes. Leki thinks that extroversion is
related to the ability to generate interaction in the target language, in this
case, English. I would consider Mahsa a “High Input Generator” because she
would “seek out opportunities to use the target language.” For example, during
the summers off, Mahsa would either attend summer school, baby-sit, or
volunteer as a counselor at Camp Horizon in West Ocean City. She also took
to reading. All of these activities contributed to Mahsa’s English language
growth and awareness.
The rigorous assignments and high expectations placed on Mahsa while
attending school for six years in Iran has influenced her English learning in
the United States. Mahsa was accustomed to putting forth her best effort in all
7
she did in Iran. In other words, she had been conditioned, since the first
grade, to study for numerous hours and to complete various intellectually
demanding assignments each night. In Iran, harsh punishments would
prevail for those students who failed to complete their homework assignments.
Students would be sent to the office, reprimanded, or slapped for incompletion
of assignments or for not understanding information. When Mahsa arrived to
the United States and began school, she continued the same rigorous schedule,
this time focusing on learning the English language. If she did not receive 4
hours worth of homework, for example, she would study, read, or practice
English until she felt it was sufficient. This determination, along with the
involvement and pressure from her parents, has prevented Mahsa from falling
prey to the ‘laziness’ that lurks inside many of her peers.
Mahsa attended school for six years in Mashhad, Iran, learning to read
and write in Farsi. When Mahsa arrived to the United States, she was literate
in her mother tongue. According to Skutnabb-Kangas Toukomaa’s
developmental interdependence hypothesis, students that have “well
developed skills in one language will favor the acquisition of good skills in the
other.” Because Mahsa was already proficient in her native language of Farsi,
she was able to construct meaning from written English. Being literate in
Farsi also allowed Mahsa to depend on, and refer to, a bilingual dictionary in
the early stages of language learning to act as a reference for English text and
8
to complement lessons. Aside from the benefit of being able to utilize a
bilingual dictionary to construct meaning, Mahsa does not believe being
literate in Farsi contributed to her rapid acquisition of the English language
since the two languages are so diverse. Farsi contains approximately thirtytwo letters to English’s twenty-six. Sentence structure between the two
languages also differ, for example, Farsi uses “(S) (PP) (O) V” unless the object
is definite and then the sentence structure is, “(S) (O + “r□:”) (PP) V.” In
English, however, the most common sentence structure is “(S) (V) (O or PP).”
These differences cause problems for most language learners when translating
ideas into written English. Although Mahsa is considered bilingual and is able
to produce comprehensible written English, it is definitely the most
challenging aspect of the English language skills for her.
Mahsa has achieved the basic interpersonal communication skills
(BICS) and is working towards achieving cognitive academic language
proficiency (CALP), if she hasn’t already. Mahsa is capable of effectively
communicating with her peers and teachers in a variety of domains. Mahsa
may be lacking some BICS since she is not familiar with curse words in
English, which could be considered “playground talk.” In my opinion, however,
this unfamiliarity displays her character and not her English knowledge.
Regarding CALP, Mahsa is successful in her content-area classes and has
achieved the Principal’s list for the past two years.
9
According to Romaine, Mahsa is considered a coordinate bilingual since
she learned Farsi first, growing up at home in Iran. Years later when Mahsa’s
family moved to the United States, she began learning English in a separate
environment. The two languages have developed separately from one another
and Mahsa has developed a unitary system which operates for both languages.
Currently, Mahsa rarely confuses the two languages. She admits that
code-switching used to be difficult but she is now comfortable and efficient at
switching between English and Farsi. Mahsa attributes this ease to practice.
Because Mahsa lived in the United States with four native-Farsi speaking
people and three native-English speaking people in the house, she was
constantly surrounded by both languages. She also has had practice
translating her grandmother’s Farsi words to her English-speaking Aunt. In
my opinion, Mahsa’s capability of keeping the two languages separate
coordinates with the current theory that the language of incoming information
determines which language is used. Mahsa speaks to her family in Farsi
because they address her in Farsi. In school, however, Mahsa uses English
because she is addressed in English. Mahsa did share one story with me
where she was talking to her grandma in Farsi and switched to English
without realizing it. Through practice, Mahsa has learned to control the
“switch” when using Farsi and English.
10
Mahsa’s growth and achievement is an exception to that of the typical
English language learners in this society. It is my belief that those students,
such as Mahsa, who are motivated to learn English, are already literate in
their native-language, are intelligent individuals, and have supportive parents
will be successful in acquiring a new language. For these students, bilingual
education would act as a crutch, not used as a tool. Mahsa’s success stems
from the fact that it was necessary to learn English and she had access to the
resources to be successful. Mahsa was also able to rely on her American aunt
for reinforcement and reassurance. On the other hand, many English
language learners come to the United States and are not literate in their
native language. Remember, that according to Skutnabb-Kangas Toukomaa’s
developmental interdependence hypothesis, students that have “well
developed skills in one language will favor the acquisition of good skills in the
other.” For those students who are not literate in their native language, a
bilingual program would be beneficial, if not necessary; because in order to
construct meaning in the second language, the student needs to be proficient
in the native-language. Also, many of these students do not have the resources
or the time to devote to learning, or teaching themselves, another language.
For this population, a bilingual education program would be beneficial.
***Click here to view a PowerPoint Presentation on Mahsa***