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<h1 class="entry-title">CAS changes requirements for ASL as second language</h1>
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October 25, 2018 12:38 am
<span class="entry-author gmail-vcard gmail-author">by <a class="gmail-url gmail-fn gmail-n" href="https://dailyfreepress.com/blog/author/damienwalsh/">Damian Walsh</a></span>
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<img class="gmail-size-medium gmail-wp-image-150183" src="https://dailyfreepress.com/wp-content/uploads/ASL-2-SOF-ONLINE-400x267.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="267">A
student in professor Andrew Bottom’s American Sign Language 5 class
practices signing. Boston University’s College of Arts and Sciences will
count ASL as any other second language for its second language
requirement. SOFIA KOYAMA/ DAILY FREE PRESS STAFF
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Boston University’s College of Arts
and Sciences has enacted a new policy updating the conditions for
American Sign Language to fulfill CAS’s second language requirement.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The previous policy required students
to pass an extensive proficiency test in addition to passing four
semesters of ASL to fulfill the requirement. Under the new </span><a href="http://www.bu.edu/wll/academics/cas-language-requirement/"><span style="font-weight:400">policy</span></a><span style="font-weight:400">, ASL students do not have to take the extra proficiency test, which is not required by other language departments.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Andrew Bottoms, a Deaf Studies
professor at BU, said through an interpreter that the new policy is
important for recognition of ASL as a language. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">“If it can meet the foreign language
requirement, but somehow it’s seen as different, and the requirements
are not consistent with those of other foreign languages, then it’s seen
as sub-par,” Bottoms said. “That’s concerning to me if we are not
considering American Sign Language to be a full-fledged language as any
other foreign language.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">ASL course policies at universities
across the country are inconsistent, Bottoms said, with some allowing
ASL to fulfill language requirements and others only offering it as an
elective.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Yale University recently </span><a href="https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/10/12/sign-language-courses-to-be-offered-permanently/"><span style="font-weight:400">instituted</span></a><span style="font-weight:400"> ASL as part of its permanent curriculum, and Syracuse University’s Student Association has </span><a href="http://dailyorange.com/2018/10/asl-may-recognized-official-language-su/"><span style="font-weight:400">started a petition</span></a><span style="font-weight:400"> to recognize ASL as an official language across all of the university’s colleges, rather than just its School of Education.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Bottoms said that people often assume
ASL is simply broken English or gestural communication, and they put it
in a different category than other languages because it lacks a written
form. BU’s recognition of the language is a significant step in the
right direction, he said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">“The fact that our program recognized
American Sign Language as a full-fledged language is something that is
very meaningful, and pushes us forward in terms of social justice and
how the world sees us,” Bottoms said.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The new policy treats ASL the same as
all other language offerings, Joseph Bizup, CAS’s associate dean for
undergraduate academic programs and policies, wrote in an email.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">“ASL is not merely a signed version
of English but a true language in its own right: it has its own lexicon,
morphology, syntax, even its own dialects,” Bizup wrote. “It just makes
sense to acknowledge this reality in the Second Language requirement.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Deaf Studies Club President Christine
Cincotta, a CAS senior, said CAS advisors dissuaded her from taking ASL
when she first started at BU, citing the difficulty of the proficiency
test.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">“I knew that I wanted to take ASL
coming into BU,” Cincotta said. “I knew that it was offered here, but I
even got pushback at orientation from CAS advisors, telling me that it
might not be the easiest option.” </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">The new language requirement is
similar to CAS’s former policy, Bizup wrote. The most obvious change is
in the wording, he wrote, as the requirement now asks students to become
proficient in a “second language” rather than a “foreign language.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">“The change is consistent with the
university’s global orientation,” Bizup wrote. “In renaming the
requirement, the College is recognizing and indeed emphasizing that we
live in a multilingual world.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Though the change first took effect
for the fall 2018 semester, the new policy applies to continuing
students as well as new students, Bizup wrote.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">More than 200 students are enrolled
in ASL courses at BU through the Wheelock College of Education and Human
Development, according to Bizup. Bottoms said the university’s ASL
matriculation has increased by approximately 400 percent.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">ASL course enrollment may increase with the removal of the proficiency test, Bizup wrote.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Deaf Studies Club Vice President
Rotceh Vazquez-Guzman, a Wheelock senior, said she believes some
students might not be aware that ASL is an option for them to study.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">“People do find out about it,”
Vazquez-Guzman said, “but it is often through people already knowing
that they want to learn this language, and then finding out about it on
their own rather than the department or BU itself telling them to take
it.”</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Both Cincotta and Vazquez-Goodman said they think the shift in CAS policy is a step in the right direction.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">Wheelock junior Melinda Chiang, an
ASL student, wrote in an email that she is happy that BU will now treat
ASL as an official language.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight:400">“Those of us in ASL classes know it
is just as much of language as any other and have been positively
impacted by it,” Chiang wrote. “This will open doors to future/current
students who have interest in ASL but strayed away from it because of
the exit exam.”</span></p></div>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+<br><br> Harold F. Schiffman<br><br>Professor Emeritus of <br> Dravidian Linguistics and Culture <br>Dept. of South Asia Studies <br>University of Pennsylvania<br>Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305<br><br>Phone: (215) 898-7475<br>Fax: (215) 573-2138 <br><br>Email: <a href="mailto:haroldfs@gmail.com" target="_blank">haroldfs@gmail.com</a><br><a href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/" target="_blank">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/</a> <br><br>-------------------------------------------------</div></div>