ASL Challenge Paper

Taking American Sign Language this semester has taught me a wide variety of things. It has taught me about the deaf culture, signing, using facial expressions, and has enhanced my knowledge of ASL as well as the deaf culture. Overall, I am extremely grateful to have been able to experience a different culture, such as ASL, this semester.

The idea that ASL is more than just a means of communication for those who are deaf was a profound message and made me rethink my own preconceived conclusions of what ASL can and cannot eloquently communicate. It also shows how, much like all languages, ASL is constantly evolving.

To fully understand why this is a popular debate, we must first explore Deaf culture. Dr. Beth Sonnenstrahl Benedict from the Hands and Voices organization states that “The American Deaf community values American Sign Language as the core of a culturally Deaf identity” (Benedict par 1). Language is a crucial aspect of a culture, and American Sign Language unifies the Deaf community. Although it is often dismissed as a language, ASL has its own unique sentence structure and vocabulary that make it different from English or any other foreign language. Many believe that allowing a deaf child to learn sign language is essential to them embracing their deafness as well as building

Thanks for pointing out that sign language is not universal. Sign language is just as diverse as spoken languages with its own regional dialects for different countries (NAD, n.d.). Wow! For some reason I thought deaf people spoke the same standard sign language. I’ve been enlightened. With that in mind, I see how easy it is for people and sometimes frontline medical professionals to assume that hearing impaired individuals use one language. I think it also speaks to my own cultural challenge. Since I do not have any hearing impaired individuals in my family or close friendships, I am not familiar with the way hearing impaired individuals communicate other than through sign language, which I assumed was universal. I think this is valuable because

I think about all these things, and I always come back to the thought of, if you could walk a mile in their shoes, you may see things differently. The deaf community has been embracing, and the experience has been absolutely phenomenal. I would continue to recommend the experiences which I am experiencing from learning American Sign Language, and the experience of meeting new people within the deaf community to any and every

There’s more to a person than whether or not they can hear, so don’t just focus on their ears.” Which is why American Sign Language is an important aspect of Deaf culture. Since they spend most their time with hearing people, or people who do not know American Sign Language, it is sacred to them. The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) calls ASL the “backbone of the American Deaf culture.” In contrast to other languages, ASL requires constant eye contact, facial expressions, and body language. These important aspects would diminish if a child chose to get a cochlear implant, or if their parents decided for them at a young age. They are stuck in the middle somewhere of not having normal hearing, and being

I attend a small, rigorous high school where I am dualy enrolled as a college student. By the end of my sophomore year, I was finished with my high school foreign language requirement. However, despite my concerns about fitting into Deaf culture, I knew I was passionate about ASL. I undoubtedly wanted to continue learning as much ASL as possible.

American Sign Language is well described in the book, “Introduction to American Deaf Culture” by Thomas K. Holcomb. Holcomb explains how American Sign Language is often confused with “English on the hands.” However, Holcomb cites, “Research has clearly determined that ASL has an independent grammar that happens to be quite different from English (Holcomb, p.115). It is an honest mistake to believe that ASL is the same as English except instead of orally communicating, it communicates with the use of hands. I myself also believed in that same concept. When I started to learn ASL, I couldn 't help myself from asking my deaf friends how to sign the word “to” or “the.” The concept I learned from interacting with my friends is that ASL is a completely different language with its different set of rules and grammar. Even until today, I cannot have a good established conversation in sign language because I need to adapt to the different grammar. It is important to know these rules about the language itself because that way it will be much faster to progress with the language.

What people do not understand is that signed language is visual communication therefore the language is pictorial. ASL does have grammar there is a set of rules to follow for words and sentence formation. A transcription of ASL is called glosses their sentences are not as wordy as hearing people. For example, in chapter 3 of “A Journey into the Deaf-World” says, “Me mother responsible children me take-care-of fee clean list.” This translates for hearing people, “I’m a mother, which means I have a lot of responsibilities. I must take care of the children, feed them, clean them up- there’s a whole list.” People assume deaf people have only one sign for one word, which is not true at all. They have multiple signs for one word because just one word can have multiple meanings. Like the word run has different meanings, therefore there are different signs for the word run. The stages for deaf babies learning signed language are very similar to that of hearing babies learning spoken English. Just like hearing babies, deaf babies begin at the one-word stage

The most common barriers were communication and employers' lack of knowledge about deafness. Other barriers were; discrimination, educational, and unrealistic expectations.

Through all of the material I have studied preparing me for this ASL social event, one thing has been consistent, and that is that deaf people in the community will not judge you for your lack of skills but rather they will appreciate the effort that you are putting to communicate with them. I found this to be true when I went to ASL night at menchie’s and I observed how people were so willing to help out, not just members of the deaf community, but also members of the hearing community, everyone was more than willing to help each other. The atmosphere in this environment although intimidating at first, wasn’t freighting it was an opportunity for me to interact with a brand-new community filled with such supporting people.

Deaf or Hard of Hearing people face very many issue when it comes to pursuing a higher education. Teachers who do not speaking clear and in natural tones in class. The Schools don’t having enough interpreters for all the students with hard of hearing or deaf problems. They also face the problems of getting stuck in the back of the class where it is hard to see the interpreter which then they might miss part of what the instructor is saying or doing in class because of that issue. They also have to face the issue of learning English because ASL is completely different than English. ASL doesn’t use all the words we use to make sentence or to talk to people. They also face people looking at them different and treating them different because

Helen Keller once said, ¨Blindness separates people from things; Deafness separates people from people.¨ Sign language is not just a way of communication for deaf people, it is a culture. Ninety percent of deaf children are born to deaf parents. The challenges facing parents with deaf children are numerous when it comes to identifying educational strategies that will maximize language acquisition, a sense of belonging, concept development, social competency, and ultimate societal contribution of their children. There are variations in how a person becomes deaf or hard of hearing, level of hearing, age of onset, educational background, communication methods, and cultural identity. The deaf and hard of hearing community

This is a picture from a music video for ASL. I had to record our group sihpgning a song and we picked "Rollinh in the Deep " by Adele. In the picture I'm signing BEAT . This relates to this VAASome way because let's be honest ASL is a hard language to learn like any other language that your trying to learn but only 30% of our community know sign launguage. When signing ASL you need to make sure that your signs aren't sloppy and that they're understandable. We communicate with others not by speaking or writing but by signing. When signing you must sign effectively because if you don't someone can mistakenly think you're talking about something else or they're just confused on what your trying to say to them. I can overcome obstacles by learning

When the child learns ASL signs but is taught to use them in the order of English grammar, the child is expressing the words of the language but is expressing them in the wrong order, promoting confusion. This can be compared to an English speaker saying that she had a “day great” or her “dog black there jumped.” Some people judge others for mispronouncing words or saying words not in the correct order of typical English, and deaf individuals who communicate through ASL may feel the same way about those who use ASL signs in the style of English grammar. This can cause a disconnect between the TC individual and the deaf community, which widens the gap between becoming acculturated into the deaf community. For those who learn other forms of manually coded English such as fingerspelling or cued speech, they are at even more of a disadvantage in regards to being bilingual and bicultural with the deaf community. Those who express themselves through a form of manually coded English speak in a sense a completely different language than deaf individuals who use