Well, on the one hand, ASL is natively spoken in the US, so arguably it's an American language. On the other hand, it's quite different from English, and definitely a language in its own right.
There is a similar resistance to accepting ASL as a foreign language at Carson-Newman, though in this case I think the basis of the resistance is that accepted foreign languages are taught by the Foreign Language department, and ASL is taught by the Education department. Turfiness may be part of it but I suspect that in this college accepted foreign languages are taught with significantly more academic rigor than ASL, and people are reluctant to accept a "gut" like ASL as it is taught here in place of what should be a academically demanding course. The ASL class here is ... well, students were openly helping each other on the exams, and the teacher didn't seem to care at all. Several students in my class cannot recognize "How are you?" when I sign it to them. If they recognize it, they can't remember how to respond. We're nearly at the end of their second semester of ASL. Imagine a French student who couldn't answer "Comment allez vous?" with "Bien, merci" or "Comme ci, comme ca."
On the whole, I think it would be great if ASL were offered in high schools or even grade schools, especially schools where deaf children are being "mainstreamed" with hearing children. It's the fourth most common language in the US, after all.
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Date: 2007-04-23 08:54 pm (UTC)There is a similar resistance to accepting ASL as a foreign language at Carson-Newman, though in this case I think the basis of the resistance is that accepted foreign languages are taught by the Foreign Language department, and ASL is taught by the Education department. Turfiness may be part of it but I suspect that in this college accepted foreign languages are taught with significantly more academic rigor than ASL, and people are reluctant to accept a "gut" like ASL as it is taught here in place of what should be a academically demanding course. The ASL class here is ... well, students were openly helping each other on the exams, and the teacher didn't seem to care at all. Several students in my class cannot recognize "How are you?" when I sign it to them. If they recognize it, they can't remember how to respond. We're nearly at the end of their second semester of ASL. Imagine a French student who couldn't answer "Comment allez vous?" with "Bien, merci" or "Comme ci, comme ca."
On the whole, I think it would be great if ASL were offered in high schools or even grade schools, especially schools where deaf children are being "mainstreamed" with hearing children. It's the fourth most common language in the US, after all.