American Sign Language
FAQs
What is it?
American Sign Language (ASL) is a visual language. With signing, the brain processes linguistic information through the eyes. The shape, placement, and movement of the hands, as well as facial expressions and body movements, all play important parts in conveying information.
Is ASL a real language?
Like any spoken language, ASL is a language with its own unique rules of grammar and syntax. Like all languages, ASL is a living language that grows and changes over time.
ASL is used predominantly in the United States and in many parts of Canada. ASL is accepted by many high schools, colleges, and universities in fulfillment of modern and “foreign” language academic degree requirements across the United States.
Is ASL really a beneficial language to learn?
Most people are unaware that depending upon the area, ASL is generally recognized as the 3rd or 4th most used language in the United States. And, not surprisingly, larger metropolitan areas with Schools for the Deaf have large deaf communities. American Sign Language is now one of the most studied modern or foreign languages in different colleges and universities in the U.S. This is good news because learning ASL is proven to have benefits, even if a student does not have plans of working as an interpreter or other related jobs. Learning sign language and any other foreign languages is good for the brain. It enhances cognition, and creative and abstract thinking. It even has the added benefit of improving hand and eye coordination.
Is ASL a universal language?
Sign language is not a universal language — each country has its own sign language, and regions have dialects, much like the many languages spoken all over the world.
Who uses ASL?
It is the primary language of many North Americans who are deaf and is one of several communication options used by people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
The Story of ASL
The Gallaudet and Clerc Story
One day, a hearing man named Thomas H. Gallaudet walked around the neighborhood. He noticed a young girl named Alice Cogswell playing alone. Thomas looked at the girl, wondered why she played alone. So, he spoke to the girl and tried to get her attention but the girl did not look back at him. So, Thomas walked up to the girl and tried to speak to her again, however she didn’t look back at him. Puzzled, Thomas tried to speak to her once again, but the girl continued playing. So, Thomas carefully tapped her shoulder and she finally looked back at him. Thomas tried speaking to her again, but the girl gave him an “I can’t hear you” look.
Thomas later realized that the girl was Deaf and wanted to teach her, however there was one problem: communication.
Thomas also realized that America doesn’t have any schools that could teach Deaf children. However, he remembered that there was a school for the Deaf in England. He traveled to England first through a boat. Once he got there, he found a school and observed how the Deaf children were taught. However, Thomas didn’t like the way he observed how teachers there taught Deaf children because they didn’t sign at all. The teacher there only used spoken language. Disappointed, he left the school and started wondering which country that has a school that teaches sign language.
Suddenly, he remembered there was a school for the Deaf in France. So, he got onto the boat and traveled to France. When he arrived there, he found the school and observed the class. He saw Deaf children signed to each other. He looked around and met the teacher named Laurent Clerc, who was Deaf. While he observed the class, he realized that Clerc was a very good teacher because he taught Deaf children sign language. After the class, Thomas met up with Clerc and asked him to come with him to America to help him teach sign language to Deaf children there. Clerc wasn’t sure at first, but finally he agreed but only for a while.
Together they traveled to America. While on the way back to America, Thomas taught Clerc how to read and write in English, while he taught him how to learn sign language. After they arrived in America, Thomas and Clerc taught Alice Cogswell sign language, and then later established the first permanent school for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut in 1817.