ASL as a foreign language

I was a linguistics major at Dartmouth College, and am now pursuing a doctoral degree in Speech ‘ Hearing Biosceince ‘ Technology (SHBT) at the Harvard-MIT Joint Division of Health Sciences and technology . The controversy over whether or not American Sign Language (ASL) should count toward the foreign language requirement at Boston University was brought to my attention by another SHBT student. After reading the articles in the Daily Free Press , I think it is worth weighing in on the matter.

ASL is not a visual version of English. It is a fully expressive and grammatical language in its own right, with no more connection to English than German or Chinese. The linguistics world at large subscribes to this view, as evidenced by the existence of professional academic journals devoted to studying signed languages , as well as workshops and a plenary address at the most recent annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (go to the Members link, then Annual Meeting, Past Programs, and take a look at the 2004 Handbook, noting Judy Kegl’s plenary address, and the worshop on ‘ASL and Gesture’).

ASL is not an Anglo-Saxon language, and it is not a language without a culture – Deaf culture (with a capital ‘D’!!) is as rich as any other. For centuries deafness was seen only as a pathology, and attempts by deaf people to communicate via signed language was despised. The Deaf culture was viewed as a threat to the well-being of deaf individuals, as was their language. How could such things threaten their well-being? It was thought that Deaf language and culture were imperfect fall-backs that would hinder deaf people’s attempts to survive in a near-normal way in a hearing world. Only relatively recently has this view begun to change, and it is still unfortunately a view held by many.

I highly recommend Oliver Sacks’ book “Seeing Voices” as a good place to start learning about Deaf language and culture. It is very readable, delightful, and informative, and it will change your views of ASL and the Deaf community.

Sincerely,

Steven Lulich