Living in Others’ World
Chapter four talks about sign language’s essence, various scholarly theories surrounding sign language, and individual perceptions of deaf people. It is substantive that the deaf generation has been of great value to their world and others. Sign language’s historical invention was of great value in ensuring that the deaf generation helps itself and others realize their goals and objectives. Sign language has been transferred from generation to generation. The majority of deaf people have managed to learn sign language on their own. Signs were perceived to be associated with a high level of intelligence, as used to convey important and highly coded messages by the community’s elite people. This thought is anchored on the documented views of Veditz. Sign language is believed to be developed from ordinary gestures with the view of conveying critical messages. Indeed sign language is acquired as a first language, and its primary role is for social interaction. There has been fossilized thought that sign language makes them less human beings with limited human potential.
Theories such as silent workers portray deaf people as hard-working and law-abiding citizens with equal abilities like any other human being. Sign language is necessary for complex a system thus has been transmitted from one generation to another. This is why modern linguistics group sing language with other natural languages as opposed to old thoughts. Sign language users’ current use cannot be compared to early masters who had unique art of choosing the best style of message delivery. It used to be better and natural, unlike the use of signs in modern society. Manual English systems have been devised by a committee of educators recommending signs to teach English to deaf children. There has been a modification of old signs to create a correspondence between English and ASL. Different opinions such as deaf people being protective about sign language being dependent on it and lacking speech ability have shaped ASL. As an American Sign Language student, chapter four is an eye-opener about sign language value in society. I appreciate that signs have continued to be modified to enable deaf people to accomplish life goals like people with speech ability. I have learned that signs are associated with intelligence. It becomes easy to deliver a classified message to the target audience. Sign language should be valued, preserved, and passed from generation to generation.
Question: How can we American Sign Language students protect sign language that is being threatened?