Writing about ASL is a technical skill that must be learned if a user of ASL is to spread language and culture of the Deaf further than among a circle of immediate acquaintances. More than that, despite the importance of the oral tradition in ASL, many linguistic and cultural points and positions are so intricate and complex that they can be advanced, followed, and criticized only if they are printed as sidewise arguments for study and contemplation at length and at leisure. In this post I provide two basic rationales for writing about ASL.1. We the Deaf need Case Studies that examine all ASL variables in order to provide as complete an understanding of an event or situation as possible. If you ask today’s ASL interpreters, for example, to write case studies, they would be unable to do so for two reasons: (1) they are not trained and (2) they are reminded by the Code of Ethics regulation (not law). No graduate schools across the nation have a set of case studies that can be very useful for academic discussion as well as dialogue about best practices and problem-solving strategies for ASL. No Deaf Education teachers have developed case studies that focus on ASL-English bilingualism either.
2. We the Deaf want to be professional in our own language and culture. Writing about ASL is the only way we can enter the dialogue that is the lifeblood of ASL. In discussion notes, articles, books, and case studies we are able to present theses, arguments, and criticisms to our peers, counterparts and colleagues. We need their responses that will help make us better users of ASL.
Writing about ASL is similar to scientific writing in the requirement that it be rhetorically clear. It means that one must say what one means as nearly as possible with univocal words and phrases, in detail, and at sufficient length to avoid misunderstanding. However, clarity does not necessarily rule out ambiguity in ASL, but ambiguities must be clearly evident and not hidden. A case study on ASL must bear on a language problem set out to expostulate, interpret, clarify, analyze, explicate, develop, reduce, derive, dissolve, solve, or give the history of ASL, but in each case study the problem itself is primary to work on. A good case study does not count as much as a book or an article, but it should show that the author know what he or she is doing.
I refuse to be embarrassed about writing this post that should have helped us both to write about ASL and to get sophisticated in our own language and culture. And it would be wrong if we are intimidated by snobbish institutions or organizations that tell us that it would be beneath a scholar’s dignity. That conceit is an affection deriving from a time when it was okay to oppress ASL and the Deaf. No, there is no right or wrong way of writing about ASL, which reminds me of the joke about one of my former Gallaudet University students who asked me how to get to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. I fixed her with a steely eye and replied: "Practice! Practice! Practice!" If you want to write about ASL: "Write! Write! Write!"
5 comments:
Do you mean digitalizing ASL by videotaping? Also, do you mean academic ASL? It cannot be done in print version.
Writing about ASL is different from writing in ASL which is impossible. Videotaping would be great but it would be very difficult to scan. Writing about ASL is a discipline in which one will see more magic happen. You and I have seen it happening since the spring 2006 protest at Gallaudet University. A lot of ideas abound in our Deaf spirit. Deafhood is an example of magic that finds itself into college classrooms for discussions and dialogues. Anne Marie, thank you for asking. Aloha!
I overlooked the preposition of "about" and "in". It is possible to scan on video if the format requires authors to provide one full video segment and segment(s) of paragraphes and if a book, chapters and segments like how readers do with a print version.
The playback feature would need to be compressed to faster playback than normal rate.
I personally would do both way, print and video so that the material will be accessible to everyone. Also maybe more academically acceptable because publishing simply comes in print version, not audio narration types.
Let me challenge a question, how would thinking be like if we discuss concepts about our language in ASL first before writing? Or writing before ASL? I know there is nothing really pure. Our minds already have filters built on over years with sorts of social elements and influences.
I am more interested to see thinkings generated from ASL first although I am not saying we should be restricted to such processes to express our ideas. I think it will be interesting to see how our thinking emerge from our own language and see how this would reflect more truly about our deaf ASL paradigm.
Anne Marie
It is well documented that babies do learn to sign before they begin to talk. Talking is then reduced into writing depending on space available (3x5 index card, 8x11 paper sheet, 48 pages, etc...). What a learning discipline! Writing requires a clear, cohensive and coherent translation from spoken words into written words. As for Deaf people, we have to be ASL/English bilingual if we were to write. What a big, huge, enormous responsibility! What is funny in ASL, for example, is absent in English and vice versa. It requires cross-linguistic and cross-cultural interpretation and explanation. I wrote somewhere in my blogsite that ASL can by its very nature not be satisfactorily described on paper, but I believe firmly that nuances in ASL/English bilingualism must be learned at as early a stage as possible. I could remember from my dormitory life at MSD where I was often challenged by my peers if I knew words for signs or signs for words. I only wish there was someone who could guide us in our bilingual development.
It is well documented that babies do learn to sign before they begin to talk. Talking is then reduced into writing depending on space available (3x5 index card, 8x11 paper sheet, 48 pages, etc...). What a learning discipline! Writing requires a clear, cohesive and coherent translation from spoken words into written words. As for Deaf people, we have to be ASL/English bilingual if we were to write. What a big, huge, enormous responsibility! What is funny in ASL, for example, is absent in English and vice versa. It requires cross-linguistic and cross-cultural interpretation and explanation. I wrote somewhere in my blogsite that ASL can by its very nature not be satisfactorily described on paper, but I believe firmly that nuances in ASL/English bilingualism must be learned at as early a stage as possible. I could remember from my dormitory life at MSD where I was often challenged by my peers if I knew words for signs or signs for words. I only wish there was someone who could guide us in our bilingual development.
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