American Sign Language Summary

In this article the author is expressing his opinion on the teaching of

American Sign Language as a foreign language in public universities and

colleges. He is of a contrary view regarding considering American Sign

Language as a foreign language. The author argues that American Sign

Language should not in any way be considered a foreign language since

it does not meet the necessary criteria to be considered as a foreign

language. According to the author, a foreign language should be distinct

and identified with people of a given geographical location preferably a

sovereign state. It should also have a unique and very distinctive culture

associated with it just like other world foreign languages such as

Arabic, Spanish, French, …show more content…
Even though knowledge on American Sign Language

comes in handy in many professions, students should not deny

themselves an opportunity to benefit from studying a real foreign

language. Another claim by the author is that some students are taking

American Sign Language as an escape from the more involving and

difficult foreign language options to choose from presented to them. The

students opt for American Sign Language since they think it cool as it

is more visual and they can easily relate to it. He backs up this claim by

an extract from the times where a junior at The University of Vermont

is quoted to have said that she got “hooked and kept going ” suggesting

she found American Sign Language Interesting. The READING

RESPONSE 3 author only sees this as a compromise on the quality and

standard of foreign language requirement and he feels that the objective

of preparing students for the global economy will not realized

The misconception here is that the push for recognition of American

Sign Language as a foreign language also involves the deaf and it