n I am writing in response to the interest expressed in recent weeks about the suitability of American Sign Language to satisfy the College of Arts and Sciences’ foreign language requirement. This is an issue that has been raised periodically over the years, and like all curricular proposals, it has received careful study and consideration in this office, including comparison with other liberal arts colleges with a foreign language requirement.
At issue is not the status of ASL as a distinct language with an associated history, literature and cultural role: Boston University is solidly committed to this status for ASL, which we offer for credit in our Deaf Studies Program in the School of Education and which may be counted toward many BU degrees.
The issue is rather the status of ASL as a “foreign” language. The CAS policy, as stated in the Undergraduate Programs Bulletin, defines the study of a foreign language as “a significant element in liberal education, providing access to the literature and culture of another society.” That is, we view the study of a foreign language as a necessary element of a degree in liberal arts, and we have traditionally viewed this study as belonging within the humanities, which focus on the literature, philosophy, history, religion and civilization of the world’s various peoples and cultures past and present.
Under this definition and purpose, ASL does not qualify as a foreign language since it is almost exclusively used by inhabitants of North America who cross the whole spectrum of North American culture, and it has not (or not yet) generated a corpus of literature with the breadth and general circulation beyond its own users that would put it on a par with the languages traditionally adopted for a humanities requirement.
CAS certainly acknowledges the important role played by ASL in our society and is sympathetic to the desire of ASL users to increase the language’s public recognition, but we cannot adopt it for a requirement that seeks to serve different ends.
Jeffrey Henderson
Dean
College of Arts and Sciences
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