Proposal for ASL to satisfy the College's foreign language requirement

PROPOSAL[*]

That the College of Arts and Sciences accept American Sign Language in fulfillment of its Foreign Language requirement for the B.A. degree.

RATIONALE

Extensive current research (see sample references, Appendix 1) argues persuasively that American Sign Language, or ASL, is an autonomous, natural language, with its own morphological structure and syntax, comparable in complexity and expressiveness to oral languages; that ASL is associated with a distinctive culture of Deaf Americans; and that the study of ASL provides opportunities for exploration and research comparable to those offered by spoken languages.

Study of ASL is consistent with the goals of the Foreign Language requirement at U.Va., as described in the Final Report of the Subcommittee to Review the Foreign Language Requirement[1].

Adoption of this proposal will bring the University of Virginia into alignment with the policies of peer institutions, which have been adopting similar policies in increasing numbers over the past several years. (A list of universities that allow proficiency in ASL to count toward their foreign language requirements appears on a web site maintained by Sherman Wilcox of the University of New Mexico.)

AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE

The term "sign language" is often used as a generic term for any manual communication system. ASL should not be confused, however, with sign systems based on English grammar and created specifically to teach English to deaf children. ASL is not derived from or based on any spoken language (Rutherford 1988:132). Its morphological forms and syntactic structures are distinct from those of English (Klima and Bellugi 1979; Valli and Lucas 1995). The signs of ASL are distinct from both gestures and pantomime (Stokoe 1980:367).

ASL is a visual-manual language whose linguistic units consist of hand shapes, positions, and movements, combined with subtle and complex uses of non-manual signals such as facial expressions, movements of the head and body, and use of space around the signer's body (Padden 1988:261; Liddell 1990 [1995]). Combinations of these elements make possible a variety of linguistic expressions as unlimited as the combinations of sounds and words used in oral languages (Bellugi 1980:57; Valli and Lucas 1995:9).

ASL is neither an invented nor a universal language. Like any natural language, it has evolved over long years of use within a specific community and culture. Sign languages of different countries differ from one another in morphology, phonology, and syntax just as spoken languages do (Friedman 1977:13-56; Padden 1988:252; Klima and Bellugi 1979).

ASL has a linguistic history distinct from that of the English language. ASL has its historical roots in French Sign Language, brought to the United States in 1817 by a Deaf French educator, which combined with a number of regional indigenous sign languages to form modern ASL (Woodward 1978). Because sign languages are living languages, French Sign Language and ASL have diverged over the years; nevertheless, the two languages are to a limited extent mutually intelligible, somewhat like modern Spanish and Italian. Unlike the spoken languages of the U.S. and Britain, however, British Sign Language and ASL have no historical relation and are fundamentafly different (Rutherford 1988:133; Friedman 1977:3; Woodward 1978).

HISTORY AND CULTURE OF THE AMERICAN DEAF COMMUNITY

Scholars have conducted extensive research in recent years into the history and culture of the American Deaf community as well as its language. There is now a substantial and growing body of literature documenting a distinctive Deaf culture in the United States. While people who share physical differences from the majority are bound together by shared experiences, this in itself is not sufficient for the formation of a culture. The culture of American Deaf people does not include all those who are audiometrically deaf but rather those deaf people who use ASL, share certain attitudes about themselves and their relation to the hearing world, and self-consciously identify themselves as part of a Deaf culture (Lane, Hoffineister, and Bahan 1996, ch. 5).

One aspect of Deaf cultural distinctiveness is the creation of linguistic communities based on visual, rather than spoken, languages (Rutherford 1988; Higgins 1987; Lane et al. 1996). In addition to the use of ASL, the Deaf community is characterized by a number of other cultural attributes (Baker and Padden 1978; Stokoe 1980; Padden and Humphries 1988; Lane et al. 1996). For example, like other ethnic communities, Deaf people have established a range of social, political, and economic organizations. The National Association of the Deaf dates back to 1880, and has active member chapters in every state. Local Deaf clubs serve as meeting places and social centers, and residential schools have served an important socializing function for children. There are Deaf athletic organizations, church congregations, and publications (Lane et al. 1996, ch. 5).

Other cultural attributes of the American Deaf community include a 90% endogamous marriage rate (Schein 1989:106), a distinctive material culture (of which the Smithsonian Institution has acquired a collection; see Rutherford 1988:135), rules of etiquette that differ from those of the larger hearing society (Wilcox and Wilcox 1991:68-9), and a unique means of transmitting cultural knowledge between generations (Padden 1988:5-6). Hearing students who study ASL confront a rich and complex cultural world significantly different from their own.

LITERARY AND ARTISTIC TRADITIONS OF AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE

Students of ASL encounter a rich and diverse literature. Like many languages spoken in the world today, ASL does not have a written form, but it does have an oral tradition. Frishberg (1988:156) identifies three major genres of ASL literature: oratory, folklore, and performance art. The rhetorical style of oratory is marked by the use of particular, sometimes archaic, signs, and is used for formal occasions. Folklore includes a variety of traditional language arts, such as narratives on traditional themes, jokes and puns, games, and distinctive naming practices. Performance art includes poetry and plays composed in ASL. These genres follow conventions analogous to, but distinct from those of spoken languages: poetry, for example, is based on visual rather than aural patterns. A large and growing literature, recorded on film and videotape and dating back to 1913, is now widely available to students and teachers of ASL (Bellugi and Klima 1975; Frishberg 1988; Gannon 1981; Kelleher 1986; Rutherford 1983, 1988; Wilcox and Wilcox 1991; Lane et al. 1996)[2].

Visual art has also played an important role in the expression of Deaf cultural identity. The organization Deaf Artists of America, founded in 1985, organized exhibits and sponsored conferences; in 1989 a group of Deaf artists articulated a distinctive art form, called Deaf View/Image Art (DeVIA), in which the artist intentionally expresses the Deaf experience through visual art (Lane et al. 1996:140).

The abovementioned aspects of ASL and Deaf Culture have been the subject of a highly successful lecture series at U.Va. over the past four years, with combined sponsorship of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and a number of U.Va. departments and programs. Audiences for the lectures have averaged 150-200, some coming from as far away as Maryland and Pennsylvania. Appendix 3 provides a list of the lecture topics and dates.

ASL AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

ASL is indigenous to the United States and parts of Canada. This does not preclude the classification of ASL as a "foreign" language for the purposes of the Foreign Language requirement, however. College policy currently accepts indigenous American languages, such a those of Native American peoples, in fulfillment of the Foreign Language requirement. (It is also worth pointing out that several European languages, most notably Spanish, French, and German, have been used continuously in this country for as long as English has, and so could well be regarded as non-"foreign". The same argument could be applied to Biblical Hebrew, which is regularly used in ritual practice by American Jews). According to the Final Report of the Subcommittee to Review the Foreign Language Requirement (henceforth SRFLR), "The knowledge of a foreign language is essential for those who wish not only to participate, for business, scholarly, or personal reasons, in the international community but also to work among the numerous peoples of our own country whose primary (or only) language is not English" (p. 1).

Study of ASL is consistent with the goal, expressed in the SRFLR report, of developing multi-cultural knowledge and awareness:

"Various languages reflect different ways of conceptualizing and articulating human thought, and through knowledge of the language these differing ways can be recognized and appreciated" (p. 1).

Study of ASL is also consistent with the goal of developing students' understanding of language in general: "Since language is the primary means by which we conceptualize and articulate thought, it is itself an object worthy of intellectual scrutiny. Foreign languages are also usually the best means by which students learn the structure, mechanics, and nuances not only of languages in general but also of their own language. Foreign language study provides the opportunity at the university level to reinforce one's knowledge of the structural elements of English and challenges students to probe its deeper structure. The study of a foreign language, therefore, gives students a better understanding and literacy about language in general and about their own language" (SRFLR report, p. 1). Through the study of ASL, students come into contact with a language which is not only semantically and grammatically very different from their own, but one which also operates in a different sensory channel. As with study of any foreign language, students come to understand the nature of their own language better by broadening their understanding of how languages may be constructed (Chapin 1988:111). They also come to appreciate both the commonalities that link all human languages together and the characteristics that are dependent on use of one rather than another sensory channel. For example, spoken language is dependent on sounds being uttered in a linear temporal sequence, whereas a visual language using three-dimensional space is less tied to linearity and may convey several signals simultaneously (Schein and Stewart 1995, ch. 2; Lane et al. 1996, ch. 4).