College now offers ASL undergrad major

The major provides an approved B.A. concentration in a wide array of courses. Besides the standard basic language classes, the University's program is the only one in New York offering a series of ad vanced literature and culture courses. Among the selections: History and Culture of the American Deaf Community; Teaching ASL as a Second Language; Deaf Image in Film, Theater, and Novels; and Narrative and Poetic Styles in ASL. All classes at the 200-level and beyond are taught in ASL, immersion-style.

While other institutions offer ASL classes and even degrees that examine the sociological aspects of deaf culture, few explore the language's unique literary and cultural treasures. Only recently have the stories and songs of American Sign Language emerged from a culture long hidden behind closed doors. For many years, its hand gestures were considered awkward signs of weakness among some hearing people, but ASL nevertheless thrived and grew. Today's students are discovering a rich treasure trove of stories unique to ASL.

"ASL is not derived from English, so it offers a host of avenues to explore," says Ted Supalla, associate professor of linguistics and director of the ASL Program. "Not only is it a full, natural lan guage, but it also is at the core of a new literary tradition, both in poetry and theater. In addition, the fact that it is not a signed version of English, as many people mistakenly believe, raises important scientific questions about the universals of language, as well as their developmental and neurological origins."

In addition to the major, the program now offers an ASL teacher certification track to meet the growing demand for ASL instructors in high schools. The number of hearing students taking ASL as a foreign language continues to multiply, Supalla says.

ASL first was offered as a foreign language option at the University in 1988. Enrollment in sign language classes has grown steadily since then, resulting in creation of the major. Some 350 students are taking ASL courses at Rochester this year, more than the number enrolled in German, Italian, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Chinese, Greek, or Latin. Students and teachers say the interest in learning ASL stems from a desire to prepare for careers in health or social services, as well as to communicate with Rochester's large deaf community, which is considered to have the largest per-capita deaf population in the country. Some estimates put Rochester's population of severely or profoundly deaf people at 10,000, with at least 30,000 more whose hearing is seriously impaired. As many as a tenth of the Rochester metropolitan area's 1 million residents have at least minimal skills in ASL, of which some 25,000 are proficient.