Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Allissa Hallaway
Mrs. Goossens
Senior Seminar
28 February 2018
Everywhere in the world, American Sign Language (ASL) is being used. Children may
be taught ASL because they have a hearing or speech impairment. Others learn it to help
improve their development and knowledge. American Sign Language is not just a growing
language; it is a language needed for people to communicate with one another. Teaching
American Sign Language as a foreign language in schools will help students have the knowledge
“ASL is currently the sixth most-used language in the US” (Harrington). This may not
seem like a very big deal when comparing it to the growing language of Spanish, but it really is.
Currently, ASL is ranked 18th in the world behind Polish but in front of Japanese in terms of the
people using the language (Harrington). To many, this is far down on the list, but in comparison
to the number of languages in the world, it is high on the list. ASL is slowly becoming a popular
language throughout the nation, as it helps make people feel more involved and welcomed. ASL
is being used all over the world in schools, homes, and the workplace.
When people hear about ASL, they think about deaf people, but ASL is not just for the
deaf. It is also for those that have a hearing or speech complication. If someone is born with a
speech problem, they can learn ASL for a way of communicating with those around them. If a
child has a stutter at a young age, they may learn some basic ASL to communicate while they are
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going to therapy to get rid of or decrease the stutter. A stutter does not easily go away, so if the
Every year, about 8,000 children are born deaf or hard of hearing but 95% of those
children are born into hearing families (Winn). This means that the family members will have to
learn ASL not only for them, but for their child as well (Winn). Unfortunately, it will be harder
for the parent to learn ASL than it will be for their child. The reason for this is that the adult
brain does not absorb new information like a child’s brain (Winn). A child’s brain is a sponge
that wants to learn new information all the time. This is why when a baby is first born they are
constantly looking around; they are trying to take in new information. Having a parent already
knowing basic ASL will help both the parent and child in the long run while they are trying to
teach each other. The parent will have the basic knowledge of ASL so they are more likely to
grasp the language while the child can learn the language faster.
People may not think that ASL would be beneficial to learn for preschool children unless
they have a direct family member that is deaf or has a speech problem. This is not the case at all.
If a preschool child learns ASL, they will have a lot of benefits later on in life. One benefit they
are more likely to see at first is that they score 17% higher on standardized tests than children
that do not know ASL (Education Playcare). The reason is that their brain works like someone
who is bilingual. Any child that is bilingual has a higher chance on standardized tests and can
score 17% or higher than the average student. Some other benefits of looking into ASL at a
young age are having a larger speaking vocabulary, accelerated speech and emotional
development, lower frustration levels, ability to remember words because of the muscle memory,
and better grades in school (Education Playcare). To make sure that the child will keep this
muscle memory, it is important to use some ASL at home. Muscle memory is defined “as the
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ability to repeat a specific muscular movement with improved efficiency and accuracy that is
acquired through practice and repetition” (Muscle Memory). Having a parent know what the
child is learning in school will help increase a child’s chance of having all of these benefits later
on in life.
Teaching toddlers ASL can also help ease the “terrible twos” tantrums, and at the same
time teach them quiet behaviors (Benefits for ASL for Children). ASL is also a way for them to
express themselves in a safe way. Some toddlers will take or wreak things to express
themselves, but if they have some knowledge of ASL, they are less likely to express themselves
in a dangerous or naughty way. Later on in life, expressing themselves will also become more
If the child still has the muscle memory gained by learning ASL throughout elementary
and middle school, this can benefit them even more if the high school offers an ASL class.
Many states throughout the United States and Canada are recognizing ASL as a foreign language
that can be offered in schools (Selover). By having all these schools offer ASL as a foreign
language, colleges are starting to accept ASL as a foreign language credit and offer it as a class
themselves. Having high schools offer ASL as a class will help benefit the students by giving
them the opportunity to learn the language and also help prepare them if they wish to pursue a
High schools commonly offer French, Spanish, or Latin as foreign languages, but if one
lives in the United States their entire life, they probably are not going to use French or Latin
every day (Selover). They could, however, run into a deaf or speech impaired person at any
point because the number of deaf and speech impaired people in the United States is on the rise.
On average, 5% of the world has a hearing impairment that limits their ability to communicate
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with their voice (Rivito). This is such a high number, and yet most of the world’s population
Giving the opportunity to take ASL as a class opens the window to so many potential
possibilities for careers. Many people in careers today encounter so many different people that
speak a different language or have certain limitations. A person may be faced with someone that
can only communicate with ASL, so knowing at least the basics can help make an impact on
someone’s career. All it takes is to have one small gesture that changes the way a person feels
about a worker and make them feel welcome to come back to the company or store in the future.
If someone goes to be a social worker, child care worker, educator, employment counselor,
psychologist, hospital worker, government institutions or into anything business related, they
have an extremely high chance of meeting someone who can only speak with ASL (Careers
Working with the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing). Specifically, if the career path is in education,
more and more schools are hiring staff to accommodate special needs students (A.). Knowing
ASL can help one get the job because of the background with another language, especially if the
school has a number of students that struggle with hearing or are completely deaf.
Since there are many different careers that could encounter someone with a hearing
impairment, knowing ASL will help them in their specific geographic region. People all over the
United States learn to sign differently depending on the region they grew up in and who taught
them ASL. If they grew up in the south, they will have some different signs that the people in
the north would not use (Marquardt). An example of this would be knowing how to sign slang
words that are commonly said in the south. Since a person could travel all over the nation,
knowing a variety of these words will benefit them for their career. Having an open mind that
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there will be words that they will not know and being willing to try and learn them is also
Once families start to have children, those with the ASL background will be able to teach
their kids some of the basic knowledge. This will benefit the parent if they do not get the chance
to use ASL as often as they hoped because now, they will hopefully get the chance to use it with
their children. In a way, this is a great opportunity for the parent and child to bond with one
another. People may think this is a weird way to bond, but when children are young and
developing, being around the child and sharing an interest will help build a stronger connection
versus a family that does not do things together. Once the child has a basic knowledge to hold a
When a child starts to use ASL at home with their family when they are younger, their
signs will be different than those who will learn it in a class compared to at home. At home,
children will learn to sign in their own way that their family and friends will learn to know.
They may have a shortcut to saying a word or create their own word. An example would be their
own personal name. Instead of spelling it out every single time, they will create a sign that will
represent their name, thus saves time while communicating. The downfall that does come with
this is the fact that those that do not know the family will have a problem understanding what
Knowing ASL has so many benefits for children, careers, and communities, but ASL is
not a universal language across the world. There are different kinds of sign languages depending
on the language spoken in the country. In France, they have French Sign Language (LSF)
instead of ASL. Even in Britain, they have their own sign language, British Sign Language
(BSL). People would not think that there would be a difference between the two, but there is.
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For beginners, learning their ABC’s in BSL, they use both hands, while in ASL, it is only the use
of one hand. For “ASL, the middle finger is almost never used to form a sign, except for a small
class of signs” (Westfall). While in BSL, the middle finger is used for neutral words like
“holiday” (Westfall). Between both of the languages, there are words that are signed differently
Offering American Sign Language as a foreign language in schools will offer students
beneficial opportunities for them to communicate with others. ASL is not just a way to
communicate with those who have a hearing impairments, but a way for people to increase their
knowledge in school and the real world. ASL is a growing language that will open doors for
careers all over the world from translating to communicating with others. Learning ASL will
Works Cited
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"Benefits for ASL for Children." 2016. 4 Parent and Teachers. February 2018.
<http://4parentsandteachers.com/Benefits-of-ASL-for-children.html>.
"Careers Working with the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing." 2018. The Best Schools. February
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Education Playcare. "Benefits of Sign Language for Young Children." 16 June 2016. Education
benefits-for-young-children/>.
Harrington, Tom. "Sign Language." 16 January 2018. Gallaudet University. 19 Febrary 2018.
<http://libguides.gallaudet.edu/c.php?g=773913&p=5552647>.
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Rivito, Katie. "Why We Need to Teach ASL in Schools." 7 March 2016. Odyssey. 19 February
2017. <https://www.theodysseyonline.com/teaching-sign-language-in-schools>.
Selover, Peggy J. "American Sign Language in the High School System." 2017. Project MUSE.
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<https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-interesting-differences-between-American-
Sign-Language-and-British-Sign-Language>.
Winn, Jillian. "Signing Savy." 3 November 2016. The Importance of Early Exposure to
<https://www.signingsavvy.com/blog/235/The+Importance+of+Early+Exposure+to+Am
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