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American sign language essay 500 words
Development of sign language
My Reflection on the American Sign Language
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The development of American Sign Language in the United States dates back to as early as the 1600s. On Martha’s Vineyard there was a relatively large Deaf population due to genetics and heredity. This was thought to trace back to the first people of the land, who traveled from Massachusetts and carried this genetic deafness with them. Because there were so many people that were deaf living there, it was extremely common for all people, deaf and hearing, to learn their own version of sign language. This early form of sign language was known as Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language (MVSL) (Lapiak, 1996-2014). Little did the creators of Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language know, MVSL would be incorporated into the first school for deaf students (Lapiak, 1996-2014).
As time progressed, American Sign Language began to further develop in the 1700s with help from the French Sign Language. Charles-Michel, abbé de l’Epée, the man responsible for development of the French Sign Language, was known for teaching less fortunate deaf French children how to sign different concepts and to use the manual alphabet to spell words (“Sign Language,” n.d.). It was not until Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet traveled to Europe that sign language started to make its appearance in the United States of America.
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was a very bright and well educated young man who was from Hartford, Connecticut. He acquired undergraduate and graduate level college degrees and entered the seminary to follow his religious calling. While he was living in Connecticut, a neighbor had a deaf daughter and asked that Gallaudet would go to Europe to learn about how one would go about teaching a deaf child. Gallaudet met the head of the Institut Royal des Sourds-Muets, Abbe Sica...
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...urnal of Audiology, 20(2), S197-S202. doi: 10.1044/1059-0889(2011/10-0029)
Sign Language. (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/543721/sign-language
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. (2013). Gallaudet University. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://www.gallaudet.edu/dpn_home/thomas_hopkins_gallaudet.html
Vicars, W., Ed.D. (1997-2013). American Sign Language: "parameters" Lifeprint.com. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-layout/parameters.htm
Vicars, W., Ed.D. (1997-2013). ASL Classifiers Level 1. Lifeprint.com. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/classifiers/classifiers-frame.htm
What is American Sign language? (n.d.). National Association of the Deaf. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://www.nad.org/issues/american-sign-language/what-is-asl
He met a young idealist from America, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, who had gone to Paris to learn the best method of educating the deaf. Gallaudet could spend three months at the Royal Institution. He realized that Clerc had the expertise and "deaf experience" to help him fulfill his mission of found the first school for the deaf in America. Clerc became the assistant. Clerc and Gallaudet rode on the ship. Gallaudet taught Clerc the English language and Clerc taught Gallaudet sign language. They arrived in New York on Aug.9th.
Alice Cogswell - The Beginning of American Deaf Education - Start ASL. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2016, from https://www.start-american-sign-language.com/alice-cogswell_html
Throughout the ITP program and the lower level ASL classes the name Gallaudet is driven into our heads. We know of the University named after him and how he was the man to bring education to the Deaf in America. What was not before mentioned is that there were two Gallaudets. The first thing I learned from this book is the importance of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and his son Edward Miner Gallaudet. I fact I had believed for some time now that E.M. Gallaudet was this extraordinary man that everyone loved and the named a university after him. It is unfortunate that this was not made clearer in the past. Now all I see is a man who took the only path that he knew how to take.
...at sign language was a last resort if the child did not pick up lip reading and oral communication. Thomas now met someone who signed and spoke and realized that signing is a language in its own and its importance to people who could not hear the oral language. This began their quest to learn sign language and use it with Lynn despite the school and public opinion.
In American Sign Language a major part of the language entails being able to express emotions and types of questions through the use of non- manual signals such as when asking a yes-no question the eyebrows will go up but when asking a wh-question such as what the eyebrows go down. Another way to express something is through mouth morphemes this is the way your mouth is shaped to convey different meanings, such as size and grammar. Non-manual signals and mouth morphemes are just as important as any sign and enrich the language to make it possible to effectively communicate.
At this time in history, those who were deaf were tried at best to be converted into hearing people. Doctors, speech therapists, and audiologists all recommended the use of speaking and lip reading instead of sign language. Since Mark’s grandparents were hearing, they were closer to the parental position instead of his deaf parents. His grandparents provided him with the best possible education he could get, startin...
In 1815, Clerc and Massieu, Clerc’s mentor, went with Sicard to England where they lectured and demonstrated their teaching methods. One of their lectures was attended by a minster from Hartford, Connecticut, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. By 1816, Clerc had become Sicard’s chief assistant. He taught the highest class in the Institution. Gallaudet was given private lessons by Clerc. Gallaudet was so impressed by Clerc that he invited him to go to America and help him establish a school for the deaf there. Clerc was only 28 years old and knew the work would be an enormous benefit for the
Sign language is a natural human language, they have their own vocabularies and sentence structures. Sign language comes into practice wherever Deaf societies come into existence. Sign language is not identical worldwide; every country has its own language and accents; however, these are not the verbal or transcribed languages used by hearing individuals around them.
Acquiring a Language: American Sign Language vs. English In the Unites States and Canada, an estimated range of 500,00 to 2 million people speak/use American Sign Language. According to the Census Bureau, ASL is the leading minority language after Spanish, Italian German and French. ASL is the focal point of Deaf Culture and nothing is dearer to the Deaf people’s hearts because it is a store of cultural knowledge and also a symbol of social identity, and social interactions. It is a fully complete, autonomous and natural language with complex grammar not derived and independent of English.
The Gallaudet School of the Deaf is a University in Washington D.C. The school was first intended for the deaf and the blind. Mason Cogswell had a daughter, Alice, who was deaf. He, like any father, was worried about her education since she could not learn like normal children. Cogswell found out that in England Thomas Braidwood had started a deaf school, so he sent the most trusted person he knew to investigate the school. He convinced his neighbor and member of his intellectual circle, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, to go to England and check it out. Thomas Gallaudet was a known genius. He was a reverend who started Yale University at fourteen. Three years later, at age seventeen, he graduated first in his class. Gallaudet was pleased with his findings and came back with a companion the two started the first school for the deaf, the American School for the Deaf. Alice was the first student and the school still educates today.
Bahan, Ben. Hoffmeister, Robert. Lane, Harlan. A Journey into the Deaf World. USA: Dawn Sign Press.
Many people believe that sign language is all about the hands, but to fully understand sign language people need to pay attention to facial expressions. Deaf people and those who are fluent in ASL, American Sign Language, know how to correctly use facial expressions. Many facial expressions hold different meanings and to fully comprehend sign language one has to ask: What does each facial expression mean in sign language?
In part two the book is about the view of American Sign Language and the way people have naturally created grammar and the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language from basically nothing. He demonstrates that this languag...
Lou, Mimi WheiPing. Language Learning and Deafness: The history of language use in the education of the Deaf in the United States. Ed. Michael Strong. Cambridge: Cambridge Universtiy Press, 1988. 77-96. Print.
THESIS STATEMENT (central idea + preview statement): American Sign Language didn’t begin until 1814 which is fairly new language compared to modern languages such as English, Spanish, and French. ASL started when deaf education was first introduced in America. In this speech, we will be discussing the following: where, when, and why did ASL started, the history of Martha’s Vineyard, evolution of ASL, recognition of ASL as a real language.