American Sign Language: A Foreign Language?

[Sir Fredrick]

Hey everyone. Long time since I've really posted much of anything here. I've been doing a lot of research on this topic lately and I thought it would be interesting to see what you all think about it.

Should American Sign Language be considered a foreign language? More specifically, should students be allowed to use ASL to meet their College/University's language requirements?
Why or why not?

Let me know what you think!

 

[amnesiac]

IMO, yes. Because while probably easier to become "fluent" with ASL than another language, it's a widely recognized form of communication that can prove useful and even vital in some situations. I've heard instances of students opting to learn a computer programmign language in lieu of a foreign language, so why not ASL?

 

[Yossarian]

Absolutely. I studied it for a year and it is as "foreign" as any non-English language is to most Americans. Deaf people have their own customs and culture as well. I don't agree that it is as easy to become fluent as it is in other languages. The only thing that's easy is that there is no written form so you don't have to worry about that part of it.

 

[PrincessGuard]

What ASL lacks compared to foreign languages is literature, and more generally, culture. So it shouldn't be considered "foreign."

As far as language requirements for college, though, I think ASL should be acceptable. A programming language? Good lord.

 

[vegetation]

My local university has been accepting ASL as a foreign language requirement for quite some time now.

 

[notfred]

if sign language counts as a foreign language, then speaking english and writing english should count as two seperate languages.

 

[ElFenix]

the hard part of any language isn't understanding a fluent speaker, its speaking fluently, and i would guess asl is as hard as any other language, even understanding the sentence and verb structure previously.

 

[WoofyJr]

Originally posted by: PrincessGuard
What ASL lacks compared to foreign languages is literature, and more generally, culture. So it shouldn't be considered "foreign."

As far as language requirements for college, though, I think ASL should be acceptable. A programming language? Good lord.

Excuse me, PrincessGuard, ASL isn't lacking of culture. Deaf people who uses ASL have their culture as we call "DEAF CULTURE" . Of course, I consider ASL as Foregin Language because ASL is "spoken lanaguage".

To answer your question: YES, ASL should be acceptable for foregin language requirments at unvieiserities or colleges

 

[PrincessGuard]

Originally posted by: WoofyJr

Originally posted by: PrincessGuard
What ASL lacks compared to foreign languages is literature, and more generally, culture. So it shouldn't be considered "foreign."

As far as language requirements for college, though, I think ASL should be acceptable. A programming language? Good lord.

Excuse me, PrincessGuard, ASL isn't lacking of culture. Deaf people who uses ASL have their culture as we call "DEAF CULTURE" . Of course, I consider ASL as Foregin Language because ASL is "spoken lanaguage".

To answer your question: YES, ASL should be acceptable for foregin language requirments at unvieiserities or colleges

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend like that. I understand deaf people have their own culture and I should have stopped at literature, which is a major part of university language courses. That's the main difference I was trying to point out.

 

[Zugzwang152]

i've always thought that literature was just a easy way to reinforce concepts and to learn to quickly recognize the structure of the language, as well as to broaden your vocabulary. The most important part is to be able to converse fluently with someone else.

 

[Sir Fredrick]

Originally posted by: notfred
if sign language counts as a foreign language, then speaking english and writing english should count as two seperate languages.

Why do you say that?

To respond to some of the other arguments, there is definitely a distinct Deaf culture (often spelled with an uppercase D to distinguish from deaf which just means not hearing).

Deaf culture does in fact have a body of literature. Most of it is "oral" literature, that is, stories that are passed down to future generations by signing. But there are also publishers who specialize in publishing Deaf literature. DawnSignPress and Gallaudet University Press are two of those publishers.

 

[Alphazero]

Does ASL have unique grammar? It seems more like a different alphabet, a different way of representing words in English, than a completely different language.

 

[Yossarian]

Originally posted by: Alphazero
Does ASL have unique grammar? It seems more like a different alphabet, a different way of representing words in English, than a completely different language.

Yes it has its own grammar, if by grammar you mean a certain order that words should be in when signed. It is subject-oriented, so if you were to sign the English equivalent of "Do you want to go to a movie with me?" you would sign MOVIE YOU WANT GO WITH ME? Meaning is also conveyed through facial expressions. If you are asking a yes/no question, you raise your eyebrows, tilt your head forward and open your eyes wider.