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Boognl,Emily the Development of ASL Copy 22222 The Development of American Sign Language Emily Boognl Junior Division Paper Paper: 2,393 words Process Paper: 323 words 22222 Process Paper I chose my topic because in my last year of elementary school one of my teachers had an American Sign Language dictionary, and some of my friends and I were very interested in it and wanted to learn bits and pieces of ASL. The development of ASL relates to the annual theme of communication because ASL is how people who are deaf communicate with each other along with those that are hearing. I conducted my research by going to the internet, and I found some helpful evidence to support my side of the story. I also tried to find an argumentative side to my opinion when I did my research. I went to the public library and got a book about ASL that I used to do some of my research. One of my most important resources was Mrs. Karol McGregor, who is apart of the deaf community and deals with deafness everyday. When I created my project I really just did my research and then started to write. For me it is easiest to write down the important facts and then move them around and place them where they needed to be. My historical argument is that learning sign language and being able to speak sign is very important. Being able to speak sign language is a life skill for not only people who are deaf, but for those that want to be all inclusive to any person whether they are hearing or deaf. My topic is significant in history because people that were deaf were looked upon differently, they were told that they were different and shunned from society, and that they should be ashamed of speaking their cultural language. Even though all of this happened to the deaf community, they never gave up. They continued to fight for their own language and equality in the world today. American Sign Language is a powerful language that connects many people! 22222 1 “Deaf children are entitled to know that they are heirs to an amazing culture, not a pitiful defect.”-Carla A. Halpern Imagine wanting to be able to speak with somebody but not being able to understand what they are trying to say. Would you enjoy that? This is a challenge that most people who are part of the deaf community come upon some time in their life. American Sign Language is a phenomenal way to be able to include everyone in all forms of speech. The Earliest Sign Language It is unknown when sign language first appeared, but many agree that using hand signals to communicate has been around just as long as spoken language. Many believe that hand signals were first used by hunters in the open plains to communicate with each other from great distances. This was the most obvious way for them to communicate without scaring the animals that they were hunting. Sign Language Arrives in North America In the early 1800’s there were only a few thousand known deaf Americans. Many different variations of sign existed throughout the deaf community but there wasn’t a specific form of sign that was used by all. The history of American Sign Language (ASL) began in 1814 when deaf education started in the United States. The man that is given credit for the start of ASL is Dr. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet from Hartford, Connecticut. Dr. Gallaudet’s neighbor, Mason Fitch Cogswell, had a deaf daughter, Alice Cogswell, who was 9 at the time. Dr. Gallaudet 22222 2 realized that Alice was a very smart girl despite the fact that she couldn't talk or hear. He wanted to teach her how to communicate with others. Although he did not have much success teaching Alice reading and spelling, he did not give up his desire in wanting to help her and others learn how to communicate. The First Big Step Dr. Gallaudet wanted to learn how to educate the deaf, so by gaining community support and raising money, Gallaudet traveled to Europe. In Europe, there was a history of deaf culture. He wanted to learn the best educational methods to teach the deaf. While there, Gallaudet met many teachers that worked in the deaf community including Abbe Sicard, Jean Massieu, and Laurent Clerc. Jean Massieu and Laurent Clerc were students of Sicard’s and became very accomplished deaf educators. Gallaudet studied under all of these accomplished European deaf educators and even took private lessons with Clerc. When Dr. Gallaudet was getting ready to return to America he asked Clerc to come with him. Clerc said he would be glad to. After several years of preparation, on April 15, 1817 Gallaudet and Clerc opened the first public school for the deaf. They used the Hartfords’s Bennett’s City hotel. Their first class was small with only 9 students including Alice Cogswell, but soon the numbers grew. This was a major milestone in American deaf history. Status of the First Deaf School As the school’s popularity grew, young deaf students from across the nation traveled to Hartford to learn about Dr. Gallaudet and Clerc’s unique methods of sign. The students all 22222 3 brought their own method of sign with them, which also had its own challenges. American Sign Language is a combination of signs that came from the the students, along with signs from French Sign Language that Gallaudet learned from Clerc. Eventually their forms of sign developed the American Sign Language used today in the deaf community. Dr. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet retired in 1830 after many years of research and teaching in the deaf community. After Gallaudet retired, Clerc taught at the deaf school until the 1850’s. By the year 1863 there were 22 schools for the deaf that had been established in the U.S alone. Most of the schools had been founded by Gallaudet and Clerc’s old students. At these schools, Clerc’s methods in deaf education continued being taught. The Legacy Continued When Dr. Gallaudet died in 1851, his youngest son, Edward Miner Gallaudet, continued on his legacy in deaf education. After teaching at the school that his dad started, Edward Gallaudet was instrumental in establishing the very first college for the deaf in 1864. The college was named the Columbia Institution for the Deaf in Washington D.C., but was renamed the Gallaudet College to honor Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet in 1893. In 1960 William Stokoe, a hearing professor and scholar at Gallaudet College published a paper that proved ASL is a genuine language with a unique syntax and grammar that changed the course the history of sign language. In 1986 the school was renamed again from Gallaudet College to Gallaudet University. The University is known today as the first and only deaf university in the world. 22222 4 Not Seen as the Same Beside the fact that ASL was gaining popularity in America, there were many that didn’t accept the teachings of American Sign Language or see it as a positive development. Like many oralists in Europe, some American leaders and teachers falsely believed that sign was holding back deaf students. They believed that sign only hampered a deaf student’s development and isolated them from the rest of the society that could hear. The oralists believed that the only way to truly teach members of the deaf community was to require them to speak English and abandon sign altogether. By 1867 many major schools in America began using only oral methods of teaching with no thought of using sign. Many misguided advocates like Alexander Graham Bell were convinced that oral education was the only way to teach and have deaf students learn. Many schools started teaching deaf students orally, trying to find ways to mix oral education along with little bits and pieces of sign, although most methods focused on lip-reading and learning speech. The Milan Conference In the year 1880 the ongoing conflict between oral and manual education became the topic of the Milan Conference in Milan, Italy. Deaf educators from 7 countries gathered at this conference to make decisions about the future of deaf education. The majority of people that attended the conference believed that oral methods of education were beyond superior to manual ways of education. Edward Miner Gallaudet was part of the minority that knew, without a doubt, that sign was the most used form of communication for people of the deaf community and should 22222 5 be the main way that they are taught. Sadly the oralists won the vote and the Milan Conference decided that sign language would be banned from all schools. The Years to Come The decision that was made at the Milan Conference rocked the world of deaf education. The next ten years brought a drastic decline in sign language and by 1920 almost 80% of all deaf teaching programs were using oral methods to teach. It was so bad to use sign language, that in some classes students got their hands tied up behind their backs. Perhaps the most horrible thing that came from the decision at the Milan Conference was that the number of deaf instructors in deaf classrooms decreased from 40% to a mere 15%. Despite the ban of sign language, sign still lived on. People in the deaf community started signing outside of school or under the dinner table. Sign continued to grow, develop, and build strong relationships in America. National Association of the Deaf The National Association of the Deaf was created on a more official level in reaction to the Milan Conference.
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