Since our student, Casey Shepard, did not publish his blog summary that was due today, Wed. 11th, here's the one from the other section. Responses are due on Friday, Feb. 13th, by class time.
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People who communicate through the use of American Sign Language face many of the same dilemmas in learning SWE (Standard Written English) that other ESL students face.
ASL is considered to be a foreign language, just like Japanese, Spanish, or French. ASL “speakers” follow a much different set of guidelines in their language than English speakers. For example, when they are communicating they only use the major words in the sentence – leaving out the articles English speakers are accustomed to. For example, instead of saying “I sit in the chair”, the ASL “speaker” might say “I sit chair”.This is not the only difference in the two languages.
Those you communicate through the use of ASL construct sentences different from what would normally be expected in SWE. When asking somebody a question the ASL “speaker” will typically put the question part of the sentence (such as who, what, when, or where) at the end of the sentence much the way SWE uses a question mark. When stating that something happened in the past ASL “speakers” do not simply change the tense of the verb; they place the word finish before the action. For example:
SWE: I wrote this blog post.ASL: I finish write this blog post.
When citing a specific time, ASL “speakers” place the time at the beginning. To take the last example a step further:
SWE: I wrote this blog post last night.ASL: Last night I finish write this blog post.
To take it a step further, ASL requires that the “speaker” perform movements to help the “listener” understand the message. These movements include head movements, holding signs longer, or even raising/lowering their eye brows.
It is nice to know this information but unless it is applied it is only information. It is important to know this because ASL ‘speakers” are required to write in SWE when they write. This means that they are required to take their own words and translate those words into a different language (SWE) every time they must write. To best help the ASL “speaking” student a teacher must understand the dilemmas faced by the student as well as what kind of errors to expect and how to help them fix those mistakes and become better writers.
By: Eric Yearian
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14 comments:
I didn't know that about the structure of ASL. I can see how that would confuse a student who must switch between the two languages. Why is ASL so different from SWE?
I did not know that the ASL structure was this different. Knowing when the past and the present is would be confusing to the listener and the ASL speaker. I would have never guessed that it was that confusing. I do not know any one that uses ASL, so to me this is completely new information.
I have always known that with someone speaking ASL translations are different than what is being said. I just never knew how different it was though. SWE is difficult for students who speak the language, let alone someone who is speaking a foreign language. I don't understand why it is so different and difficult though.
I did not know that ASL was so different from SWE! I do not understand why this would be! No wonder it is so hard to go from ASL to SWE. I do not believe that I personally know anyone who uses ASL.
I never realized that ASL was so different from SWE. I thought that what was written down, was what a "speaker" would sign. I can understand now why it is considered a foreign language. I have seen ASL being used in one of my current classes. I tend to watch her sign, more than I pay attention to the professor. She moves her eyebrows and head when signing. Sometimes she'll spell words, and other times there are certain hand gestures she uses. I used to know the alphabet in sign language, and I can sometimes catch a word she is spelling.
I did not know that the structure of ASL was any different from SWE. This brings to light a whole different perspective on things for me. I now feel that ASL "speakers" are at a double disadvantage from most of us. Not only do these people have to learn things without the use of ears, they must also learn 2 complicated languages in order to communicate with the world around them. Maybe in a way they are lucky though because most people here in the USA never learn a second language and these people are, at least in my book, bilingual, and I admire that very much.
I've seen ASL translations being used, and knew the structure was shorter than SWE. At least I knew this from watching television. However, I've never really studied ASL and its components. I always thought that they studied SWE. I was really surprised that the verb usuage was different than that of SWE.
I do see why this consider ASL a foreign language. ASL is a different form of communication. Honestly, before having this class I would have never consider all of these different types of communications a foreign language. I always consider for example: Latin, German, Thai, etc..., foreign languages.
I was surprised to find out that ASL is considered a foreign language. I found it interesting how many differences there are between ASL and SWE. I can understand how someone could get very frustrated if they were trying to communicate through ASL and the receiver was getting confused on what they were trying to say. I can sympathize with those who have to use ASL because it’s very challenging in the sense that they not only have to learn SWE but also ASL just to be able to communicate with others.
Just as many others have expressed, it surprised me to find that ASL is considered a foreign language. Now that I think of it though, it does not shock me. Without the usage of certain words, such as and or the, it makes the language unique in its own. What I would like to know is if all sign language is universal. Could someone from France have an ASL conversation with someone from Ghana? I think that would be interesting to find out.
I was amazed to find that ASL is considered a foreign language. I also never realized that they changed and deleted words from the structure. I think it would be so complicating!
I was surprised to find out that ASL is considered a foreign language, because for some people that sign also speak English very well. I see how it would make it easier to teach the ASL students the way they are. It would make communication easier for them to speak to one another, but ASL students want to become normal and try to communicate with the rest of the world. So I feel it would be tough to be taught how to speak English one was via ASL but then also have to almost completely learn it again when having to write it. I think there are a couple flaws in the system that need to be worked out to make it easier on both aspects of learning.
I never really thought about how ASL works, until now. It makes complete sense why words like in and the would not be included. I mean how are you really supposed to sign the. A language is a group of words that has it own system of rules and ASL definitely qualifies. It has completely different rules than SWE does, so it is easy to understand why it is hard for them to learn to write in SWE and why it is considered another language.
Naturally, I assumed that ASL used hand motions to communicate the same language that we speak and write normally. I was unaware that ASL speakers have such an abridged version of the language. I can tell that translating between their 'spoken' and written languages would be difficult to one who is used to Sign Language grammar.
I didn't realize that the ASL structure was so different from SWE. I don't know why it has to be so different, no wonder kids have so much trouble going to ASL then to SWE. I also didn't realize that ASL was considered a different language.
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