Summary : ' American Sign Language '

The rich history of American Deaf culture in conjunction withlanguage displays the determination along with the brilliance of these people. Though the hearing world had called them sin, denounced them as dumb, these people rose up against their oppressors, making a new world for themselves.

Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was a hearing minister that designed American Sign Language, which is the first language used by deaf and hearing people in the United States and Canada. Two thousand hundred million people are using ASL, and at least five thousand hundred people are using it as their most important way of communication. Throughout a period, Deaf people in America were already using sign language, in the early 1800’s; Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet had become friends with a young Deaf girl named Alice. Gallaudet started to teach the girl a few words, and succeeded at doing so. In 1815, Gallaudet went to Europe in search of methods of teaching the Deaf. He approached a number of program directors, the signs used at the school for the deaf, and the signs began to develop into American Sign Language. American Sign Language in America also has

Sign language is one most common ways for deaf individuals to communicate without using of their voices. Different cultures and languages will typically have their own version of sign language so signs are not always universal, just like gestures are not universal. Signs are culturally bound in communication just like verbal languages and gestures are culturally bound. I will examine the history of American Sign Language, as well as how it has been viewed culturally with positive and negative social implications in the U.S.

Classifiers are handshapes we use in American sign language (ASL) to show the movement, placement, orientation, size, and shape of a noun. Since ASL is a rule-governed language when using classifiers you must first identify the noun, then you can use the classifier to show how the object moves or is placed in relationship to other objects (Aron). American sign language uses eight different kinds of classifiers for specific categories.

In learning about the deaf culture I have taken on a new understanding about the people it includes. Through readings and the lessons, I have learned that being deaf has both its hardships and its blessings. The beauty of the language alone makes one want to learn all that he or she can about it. In this paper I will discuss the beauty of the language and the misconceptions the hearing world has about deafness.

The Deaf Community in America: History in the Making by Melvia M. Nomeland and Ronald E. Nomeland is a book written to describe the changes the Deaf community, with a capital “D”, has encountered throughout time. The authors mention, “By using the capital ‘D’ to refer to a community of people who share a language and culture and the lower case ‘d’ to refer to the audiological condition of hearing loss” (Nomeland 3). In this book we are taken through a time line on how the Deaf community’s life changed socially and educationally allowing them to live normally.

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

As part of daily life, we communicate and connect ourselves with certain communities. School, jobs, families, sports, extracurricular activities, and many other communities are just a few we come into contact with. Although these may seem to appear the same, there are specific types of communities such as a discourse community. A discourse community is a group of people involved in and communicating about a particular topic, issue, or in a particular field (Webcourses, N.d, Website) that has a share a common set of goals and attempt to achieve these goals (Swales, 1990). According to researcher and educator, John Swales, there are six characteristics that define whether or not a community is considered a discourse community. Following the criteria Swales states is necessary to be a discourse community, I did an in depth research on the American Sign Language community. Through my study, I was able to meet all six characteristics.

The school I did my observation at was Bloomfield Hills High school for the American Sign Language class. The reason I have been tasked with observing an American Sign Language class is because that is my goal as a future educator, to teach American Sign Language from K to 12. I also would like to be able to educate the deaf students from K to 12, but that’s for another program, Deaf Education master’s program, in the future. I had four classes to observe, from 9th grade to 12th grade students for ASL (American Sign Language) classes. They were mostly white, some African American, and smaller number of other races such as Middle Eastern and Asian. Many of the students had special needs, the most common one would have to be ADD and ADHD, a few were hearing impaired, and I had one who was autistic. The average number I had for each class about 18 to 20 students. Now to discuss about my meaningful experiences, strengths and weaknesses of both my cooperating teacher and myself, my professional goals, and finally my reaction to the field experience.

Statistics drawn from a federation of the deaf shows that there are 70 million users of the sign language in the world.

American Sign Language is the interesting, logical, and fun to learn. ASL is the fourth most-used languages in the United States. ASL is used for hearing people to get the messages across to Deaf people and Deaf community. Deaf people use American Sign Language to communicate with their friends, family or their loved one who is deaf. Now parents are teaching their babies to learn ASL. The American Sign Language gives children, their confidence, and self-esteem in their lives. Deaf Community vs. Hard of hearing is a different point of view, and their impact was to have opportunities to have new friendships, connection to other people in the hard-of-hearing community and to be able to talk with hard of hearing people easier.

In conclusion, this paper explored the history of the Deaf Community and various issues that they have faced through time. Various hearing and Deaf leaders have made historical changes that have opened many doors to the Deaf community. They have few rights that give them full access to being full members of society. The change that needs to have for them to gain more

The visual language used by most deaf people in America is American Sign Language. Within ASL, fingerspelling is an important part of ASL. ASL signs are referred as fingerspelling signs. Fingerspelling creates a way by representing the symbols of written English (Valli & Lucas, 2000). Research on fingerspelling conducted by Robbin Battison, an ASL linguist, found English word in print is characterized with ASL signs because of the letters of fingerspelling represents the letter handshapes resembles the English print which has direct contact. Some deaf children receive an opportunity accessing and acquire ASL at home before entering school (Padden & Ramsey, 1998). Previous researches have demonstrated early acquisition of ASL fingerspelling

The development of American Sign Language in the United States dates back to as early as the 1600s. On Martha’s Vineyard there was a relatively large Deaf population due to genetics and heredity. This was thought to trace back to the first people of the land, who traveled from Massachusetts and carried this genetic deafness with them. Because there were so many people that were deaf living there, it was extremely common for all people, deaf and hearing, to learn their own version of sign language. This early form of sign language was known as Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL) (Lapiak, 1996-2014). Little did the creators of Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language know, MVSL would be incorporated into the first school for deaf students

American Sign Language is considered a natural and true language. A person who is able to speak ASL in addition to another natural true language such as English, Spanish, French, etc. is considered to be bilingual, just like any other person who speaks two languages. ASL classes are relatively easy to find. They are taught at many schools and universities across the country. Classes are also frequently found at community centers, churches and in some workplaces.