The Chicago Tribune newspaper recently published an article - "Is ASL a Foreign Language?" DeafPundit. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-sign-language-20100416,0,2337497.story
Should we get the society at large to see the American Sign Language as the modern or minority or community language?
From my past 2006 blog posting which I urge the Deaf America to embrace the ASL as a modern or minority language, instead of defining it as a foreign language. (Blogger's note - I could not possibly find my previous blog posting which urge the Deaf America to consider the federal legislation to designate the protection of ASL as a minority and community language. That blog posting disappeared into thin air or not cached in any way. *stratch head*
I only found some remaining comments of mine -
RLM said...
Anonymous, Learning ASL is more approriately called "minority language", Minority-speaking populace's language in other countries would be not seen as some kind of foreign language. ASL should be embraced as a "minority language" used by the deaf Americans, Canadians and other nationalities. That is my own personal opinion. RLM
May 22, 2008 8:44 PM
http://robertmason.blogspot.com/2007/03/linguicism-toward-deaf-signers.html
I think that is the time for us to get the U.S. Congress to recognize the American Sign Language as a minority and community language thru formal terms with the legislation to protect our beloved language That is pretty overdue by the year of 2010! I urge the Deaf America back in 2006!
Kinda puzzled why the Chicago Tribune said that the use of ASL was ranked the fourth language usage in the United States, not the third common language usage among the Americans.
The interesting revelation of the questionable statistical verification about the American Sign Language being widely known as the third-ranked language usage in the United States from Gallaudet University's Research Institute -
http://gri.gallaudet.edu/Publications/ASL_Users.pdf
ASLize yours,
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
