CAS changes requirements for ASL as second language

Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences has enacted a new policy updating the conditions for American Sign Language to fulfill CAS’s second language requirement.

The previous policy required students to pass an extensive proficiency test in addition to passing four semesters of ASL to fulfill the requirement. Under the new policy, ASL students do not have to take the extra proficiency test, which is not required by other language departments.

Andrew Bottoms, a Deaf Studies professor at BU, said through an interpreter that the new policy is important for recognition of ASL as a language.

“If it can meet the foreign language requirement, but somehow it’s seen as different, and the requirements are not consistent with those of other foreign languages, then it’s seen as sub-par,” Bottoms said. “That’s concerning to me if we are not considering American Sign Language to be a full-fledged language as any other foreign language.”

ASL course policies at universities across the country are inconsistent, Bottoms said, with some allowing ASL to fulfill language requirements and others only offering it as an elective.

Yale University recently instituted ASL as part of its permanent curriculum, and Syracuse University’s Student Association has started a petition to recognize ASL as an official language across all of the university’s colleges, rather than just its School of Education.

Bottoms said that people often assume ASL is simply broken English or gestural communication, and they put it in a different category than other languages because it lacks a written form. BU’s recognition of the language is a significant step in the right direction, he said.

“The fact that our program recognized American Sign Language as a full-fledged language is something that is very meaningful, and pushes us forward in terms of social justice and how the world sees us,” Bottoms said.

The new policy treats ASL the same as all other language offerings, Joseph Bizup, CAS’s associate dean for undergraduate academic programs and policies, wrote in an email.

“ASL is not merely a signed version of English but a true language in its own right: it has its own lexicon, morphology, syntax, even its own dialects,” Bizup wrote. “It just makes sense to acknowledge this reality in the Second Language requirement.”

Deaf Studies Club President Christine Cincotta, a CAS senior, said CAS advisors dissuaded her from taking ASL when she first started at BU, citing the difficulty of the proficiency test.

“I knew that I wanted to take ASL coming into BU,” Cincotta said. “I knew that it was offered here, but I even got pushback at orientation from CAS advisors, telling me that it might not be the easiest option.”

The new language requirement is similar to CAS’s former policy, Bizup wrote. The most obvious change is in the wording, he wrote, as the requirement now asks students to become proficient in a “second language” rather than a “foreign language.”

“The change is consistent with the university’s global orientation,” Bizup wrote. “In renaming the requirement, the College is recognizing and indeed emphasizing that we live in a multilingual world.”

Though the change first took effect for the fall 2018 semester, the new policy applies to continuing students as well as new students, Bizup wrote.

More than 200 students are enrolled in ASL courses at BU through the Wheelock College of Education and Human Development, according to Bizup. Bottoms said the university’s ASL matriculation has increased by approximately 400 percent.

ASL course enrollment may increase with the removal of the proficiency test, Bizup wrote.

Deaf Studies Club Vice President Rotceh Vazquez-Guzman, a Wheelock senior, said she believes some students might not be aware that ASL is an option for them to study.

“People do find out about it,” Vazquez-Guzman said, “but it is often through people already knowing that they want to learn this language, and then finding out about it on their own rather than the department or BU itself telling them to take it.”

Both Cincotta and Vazquez-Goodman said they think the shift in CAS policy is a step in the right direction.

Wheelock junior Melinda Chiang, an ASL student, wrote in an email that she is happy that BU will now treat ASL as an official language.

“Those of us in ASL classes know it is just as much of language as any other and have been positively impacted by it,” Chiang wrote. “This will open doors to future/current students who have interest in ASL but strayed away from it because of the exit exam.”