Uploaded August 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Christopher A. Kurz and Kim B. Kurz. (2021). "Debunking (EXPOSE) the Myths (CLAIMS) of American Sign Language In Academic Settings." In ADVANCES IN EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETING, edited by Elizabeth A. Winston and Stephen B. Fitzmaurice, 308-335. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/A/Advances-in-Educational-Interpreting
This video may not be repurposed or incorporated into other works in any way without the express written consent of the signer and the chapter author.
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As professionals in the field of Deaf education, it is our responsibility to provide the knowledge, training, and tools that ensure Deaf students are provided with an optimal access to content in their languages (ASL and English) within academic classrooms.
The focus of this chapter is on delivering academic content through ASL, it is important to analyze general assumptions or knowledge about ASL in the academic context and to discuss how educational interpreters can enhance ASL delivery in the classroom.
This chapter provides a concise historical examination of American Sign Language as a language and a language of instruction.
This chapter also discusses briefly about American Sign Language in the Academic Context as opposed to ASL as Academic Language Academic discourse is not limited to school, but also seen in home, in the public, and workplace.
To construct equivalent meaning in ASL from the English language in the classroom effectively, one needs to reflect on one’s language background and examine one’s attitudes and biases because they might have developed some misconceptions about the use of ASL in the academic context.
As with any other language in an academic setting, ASL words, phrases, and sentences become progressively dense, complex, layered, and specific from preschools to high schools and to postsecondary institutions, including academic, technical, and vocational settings. For example, the concepts behind the English phrase “Common Noun” and “Proper Noun” tend to be signed using the standard ones for common and proper. They do not match the concept meaning. Common in this context means general and Proper means specific.
Those progressive ASL terms (progressive word choice for general and/or specific meaning) are dependent on the context and formed with ASL phonological, lexical, morphological, semantic, syntactic, and discourse features. For example, the ASL word that is semantically equivalent to the English word “gravity” changes as it becomes progressively dense and specific when taught in 4th grade, 8th grade, high school physics, astronomy, quantum physics, and so on.
This chapter discusses only 8 salient facts that are essential for educational professionals, including educational interpreters, to understand some of the common misconceptions that need to be disproved. Here are three facts as an example:
FACT 3: ASL in the academic context can represent every culture, ethnicity, race, and gender in the United States and parts of Canada.
FACT 5: ASL employs a wide range of nonmanual markers, including mouth morphemes, facial expressions, movement intensity, and the signing space to explain academic concepts.
FACT 8: ASL can be standardized for academic vocabularies, just as in any other language, but it does not always have to be. Younger generations, for example, play with ASL, creating new words and modifying existing words which result in meaning change. This reflects the evolution of ASL.
Christopher A. Kurz and Kim B. Kurz. (2021). "Debunking (EXPOSE) the Myths (CLAIMS) of American Sign Language In Academic Settings." In ADVANCES IN EDUCATIONAL INTERPRETING, edited by Elizabeth A. Winston and Stephen B. Fitzmaurice, 308-335. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University Press.
https://gupress.gallaudet.edu/Books/A/Advances-in-Educational-Interpreting
This video may not be repurposed or incorporated into other works in any way without the express written consent of the signer and the chapter author.
+++++++
As professionals in the field of Deaf education, it is our responsibility to provide the knowledge, training, and tools that ensure Deaf students are provided with an optimal access to content in their languages (ASL and English) within academic classrooms.
The focus of this chapter is on delivering academic content through ASL, it is important to analyze general assumptions or knowledge about ASL in the academic context and to discuss how educational interpreters can enhance ASL delivery in the classroom.
This chapter provides a concise historical examination of American Sign Language as a language and a language of instruction.
This chapter also discusses briefly about American Sign Language in the Academic Context as opposed to ASL as Academic Language Academic discourse is not limited to school, but also seen in home, in the public, and workplace.
To construct equivalent meaning in ASL from the English language in the classroom effectively, one needs to reflect on one’s language background and examine one’s attitudes and biases because they might have developed some misconceptions about the use of ASL in the academic context.
As with any other language in an academic setting, ASL words, phrases, and sentences become progressively dense, complex, layered, and specific from preschools to high schools and to postsecondary institutions, including academic, technical, and vocational settings. For example, the concepts behind the English phrase “Common Noun” and “Proper Noun” tend to be signed using the standard ones for common and proper. They do not match the concept meaning. Common in this context means general and Proper means specific.
Those progressive ASL terms (progressive word choice for general and/or specific meaning) are dependent on the context and formed with ASL phonological, lexical, morphological, semantic, syntactic, and discourse features. For example, the ASL word that is semantically equivalent to the English word “gravity” changes as it becomes progressively dense and specific when taught in 4th grade, 8th grade, high school physics, astronomy, quantum physics, and so on.
This chapter discusses only 8 salient facts that are essential for educational professionals, including educational interpreters, to understand some of the common misconceptions that need to be disproved. Here are three facts as an example:
FACT 3: ASL in the academic context can represent every culture, ethnicity, race, and gender in the United States and parts of Canada.
FACT 5: ASL employs a wide range of nonmanual markers, including mouth morphemes, facial expressions, movement intensity, and the signing space to explain academic concepts.
FACT 8: ASL can be standardized for academic vocabularies, just as in any other language, but it does not always have to be. Younger generations, for example, play with ASL, creating new words and modifying existing words which result in meaning change. This reflects the evolution of ASL.
