Here is an audio recording of me reflecting/questioning about how people are often asked to defend the validity of signed languages to an extent that is often not asked of many vocal languages!
Hi Audrey!
I really liked the points you made about language devaluation and the examples you brought when it comes to other languages. I think this language devaluation rhetoric I was taught to believe really keeps reflecting the internalized colonialism that was engrained in me in schools since I was little. Believing that for example, ASL is not whole language in itself because it is not spoken/vocal even though it does contain phonetics keeps idealizing English as the only correct or complete language. This also comes up when it comes to talking about what languages one knows, I have witnessed a lot of people expressing how ASL is a variation of English or don't even count it as one of the languages they are fluent in. I think when it comes to counteracting towards the ASL language devaluation, it is really fundamental to implement deaf authors works or more about Deaf culture as early as possible in schools to be able to change the way people perceive non-spoken languages as complete languages. I have taken three semesters of ASL so far and I think that my professor has incorporated Deaf history, culture, and art really well because it has really taught me to understand the complexities of ASL. More importantly, I think that grammar and vocabulary is important to teach a language but so is the culture and the history behind because that is what language represents for its community and their identity..
I really liked the points you made about language devaluation and the examples you brought when it comes to other languages. I think this language devaluation rhetoric I was taught to believe really keeps reflecting the internalized colonialism that was engrained in me in schools since I was little. Believing that for example, ASL is not whole language in itself because it is not spoken/vocal even though it does contain phonetics keeps idealizing English as the only correct or complete language. This also comes up when it comes to talking about what languages one knows, I have witnessed a lot of people expressing how ASL is a variation of English or don't even count it as one of the languages they are fluent in. I think when it comes to counteracting towards the ASL language devaluation, it is really fundamental to implement deaf authors works or more about Deaf culture as early as possible in schools to be able to change the way people perceive non-spoken languages as complete languages. I have taken three semesters of ASL so far and I think that my professor has incorporated Deaf history, culture, and art really well because it has really taught me to understand the complexities of ASL. More importantly, I think that grammar and vocabulary is important to teach a language but so is the culture and the history behind because that is what language represents for its community and their identity..