Does ASL fulfill your university/college Foreign Language Requirement?

[Barbara LeMaster]

Susan Rutherford out of UC Berkeley PhD in Folklore

On Feb 21, 2007, at 10:11 AM, Barbara LeMaster wrote:

> Hi Jennifer,
>
> Am sending this to the whole list as these questions come up for many 
> of us, and the resources listed below might be of use to others....
>
> I will give you quick answers to your questions below, and can follow 
> up with more detailed information if you do not get it elsewhere (I am 
> trying to get some writing done today and may forget to get back to 
> this!)
>
> Barbara
> On Feb 21, 2007, at 9:42 AM, Jennifer Dickinson wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>> The College of Arts and Sciences at my university is considering 
>> (once again) whether to include ASL in the list of languages that 
>> fulfill the foreign language requirement.  I have been asked to 
>> gather some background resources for consideration by the college 
>> curriculum committee, although I do not have much knowledge of sign 
>> languages beyond that of your "average" linguistic anthropologist.  
>> If any of you could provide information related to the questions 
>> below, it would be a great supplement to the materials I have been 
>> putting together, and I will be happy to summarize the information 
>> and post it back to the list in a week or two.  Here is what would be 
>> most helpful for me to know given the questions that are being raised 
>> here at UVM, but feel free to send me other information or key 
>> sources!
>>
>> 1.  Does your university/college have a foreign language requirement, 
>> how many semesters/credits is it, and can students take ASL to 
>> satisfy the requirement?
>
> CSULB does not have a foreign language requirement, but we do have a 
> general education requirement that foreign language fulfills.  I have 
> just submitted paperwork to have ASL accepted as a course taught 
> through our Linguistics department, and to have it satisfy the same GE 
> as the other foreign languages here at state.
>
> At UCLA I used ASL as to qualify as my field language for my PhD in 
> the Department of Anthropology.  Marina McIntire was the first to have 
> ASL count as her language for her PhD at UCLA - she was in the 
> Linguistics department there, and predated me, of course.
>
> BTW, one of my MA students will use Eritrean Sign Language to qualify 
> as her language for the MA in Anthropology here at CSULB.
>>
>> 2.  Can you recommend resources on how other universities have 
>> resolved this issue? (I'm thinking of sites along the lines of BU's 
>> http://www.bu.edu/asllrp/fl/)
>
> Go to Sherman Wilcox' website - he has resources there, including a 
> fact sheet on ASL, to help you with this.  
> web.mac.com/swilcox/iWeb/UNM/ASL.html
>
> He has information on other colleges/universities that accept it.
>>
>> 3.  Can you recommend good resources that discuss Deaf culture(s) as 
>> distinct from mainstream American culture, and that would be 
>> accessible to a non-linguist/non-anthropologist reader?
>
> Go to this website - it gives you what you need to know:  
> http://facstaff.gallaudet.edu/harry.markowicz/asl/
>
> (or google "fact and fancy")
>>
>> 4.  Any information/studies on ASL writing systems OR equivalent 
>> sources on a visual literature for ASL?
>
> ASL is not a written language, although many are now working on a 
> written version of ASL.  There is, however, a rich literature on ASL.  
> Look at various publishers' websites, e.g., SIGN Media, Inc., DAWN 
> SIGN Press, Gallaudet Press.
>
> E.g., Poetry:  Ella Lentz, Dot Miles, etc.
>
> Susan something out of UC Berkeley wrote about Deaf folklore.  There 
> is a lot on this, maybe others can fill in the blanks.
>
>
> Good luck with it.  BTW, am happy to answers questions about this any 
> time.
>
> Barbara
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----
>> Jennifer Dickinson
>> Assistant Professor
>> Dept. of Anthropology
>> University of Vermont
>>
>>
> *****************************************************
> Dr. Barbara LeMaster
> Professor
> Departments of Anthropology and Linguistics
> FO3-320
> California State University, Long Beach
> 1250 Bellflower Boulevard
> Long Beach, CA 90840
> (562) 985-5037
> (562) 985-4379 (fax)
> lemaster at csulb.edu
> ***************************************************
>
*****************************************************
Dr. Barbara LeMaster
Professor
Departments of Anthropology and Linguistics
FO3-320
California State University, Long Beach
1250 Bellflower Boulevard
Long Beach, CA 90840
(562) 985-5037
(562) 985-4379 (fax)
lemaster at csulb.edu
***************************************************