Teaching How to Write About ASL

Any psychological process, whether the development of thought or

voluntary behavior, is a process undergoing changes right before

one’s eyes.... Under certain conditions it becomes

possible to trace this development.

–L.S. Vygotsky

There are a couple of stories that come to mind on the topic of this paper, i.e., the topic of writing about American Sign Language (ASL). I see in my mind's eye a visual vignette involving an academic writing about ASL in the 1960's, something which would have been a precursor to today's field of ASL language instruction, which paved the way for future, college-level ASL students who would later write about the language and culture of the Deaf. I can clearly see these stories written by this anonymous, archetypal academic, playing in my mind's eye, just like "film clips" of the creative imagination. In the more than twenty-seven years since I've been teaching ASL at the college level, I have related these inspirational-motivational stories to my students in connection with the topic of writing about ASL.

I even engaged myself in the process of introspection brought on by the technique of writing to myself, as an audience of one. It's a technique I find useful as a method of creating a better cognitive synthesis within my conceptual-communicative hierarchy. Though this technique, I'm able to "open a window" onto each of those various cognitive sub-hierarchies which might have been tending toward compartmentalization, so that I can reincorporate those concepts, spread-eagle style, into a more meaningful whole. In performing acts of introspection in this way, I experience the momentary sense of what at first seem to be multiple instances of different images of the self, i.e., images moving in a slow-motion divergence brought on by processes of mental-centrifugal tendencies of differentiation, but which, having achieved a degree of intra-cognitive distance are then seen as being simply concepts reflecting aspects of my whole entire being, as viewed from different angles. Then, in a satisfying experience of "deep focus," one gains a better appreciation for the self and more insight into my relationship to the world.

When I decided to research on this subject matter, i.e., teaching how to write about ASL, I was perplexed to find that that so many ASL-users do not themselves write about ASL and the experience of using it. This seems entirely unnatural, as if there were somewhere in the world spiders who refuse to stalk prey, or dogs who dislike chewing bones. Yet, humans are as much writers as spiders are predators of insects, or as dogs are polite scavengers of bones. I'm not saying that writing is a specific universal behavior made inevitable by processes of biological inheritance, yet at the same time, it cannot be denied that we are, in a manner of speaking, "born to write," in that, all that is associated with writing, i.e., thinking, talking, debating, rhyming and so forth, truly is part of the universal experience of being human. Writing, therefore, helps us to be more fully human to the extent that all those natural talents are aptitudes are sharpened and more fully developed.

But we must also not lose sight of the fact that the bulk of our human experience derives from our interaction with the world, and writing itself can be an integral psychosocial and socio-psychological tool used in the process of nurturing the development of that great metaphorical "flower of the spirit." And, like the nature-lover who experiences a deflated sense of self after seeing flowers lying prone in his garden, which were trampled underfoot as the result of unsolicited visitations by parties unknown, so too I began to realize that many of my ostensibly well-meaning teachers were turning me in the direction of not writing about ASL. Those teachers were apparently themselves made victims of a false inference, whether consciously or subconsciously realized, that one should not, or need not, write about ASL since, as of yet, ASL has not become established in the writing community as a written language in and of itself. However, the lack of an effective ASL orthography could be only historical happenstance at this point in the flow of history. The current lack of a widely used graphemic system for ASL should not be interpreted as a point against ASL's standing as a autonomous language, or a point against whether or not we should write about ASL using other languages (such as English).

ASL can be distinguished from all other languages on the basis of two general perspectives: science (what it is) and art (how it's practiced). Scientifically, we can point out the physical features of signs. Signs can be broken down, analytically, into various linguistic aspects or sub-units: hand configurations, palm positions, onset (start) and coda (end) locatives, non-manual affixes, and adverbial movements. In terms of the "art of ASL," it is evident that ASL undergoes developments along various lines, including the social, the political, the educational, as well as the psychological. So all told, the important rule to follow when writing about ASL is that one should keep in mind the "total view," of what ASL is, including all of its various aspects.  It is never enough simply to think that whatever is written down must somehow be relevant as long as it is consistent and coherent; there must also be points that are supported by clear explanations. The writing should bear out the thesis, and the student-writer can set out, starting from the thesis as the conceptual anchor, to expostulate, interpret, analyze, or relate historical aspects of ASL.

“Writing, more than ever before,” Pulitzer-Prize-winning Stanford University history professor David Kennedy points out, “is synonymous with learning; being a student is synonymous with being a writer.” I agree that the ultimate goal for ASL students is to be good writers on the topic of the language and culture of the Deaf. The students in my ASL classroom need more than just guidance on how to write about ASL, they need an introduction to the primary operative writing challenges. Here are some strategy-topics that address points necessary for students to learn how to write with brevity, clarity, and focus:

Analysis. Being skilled in analyzing ASL entails the students being able to break down a sign into its linguistic-constituent parts for clarification, to offer interpretations, and to respond to a writing challenge such as: "Discuss briefly the handshape 5."

The handshape 5 includes the extended, abducted fingers and thumb. It is commonly called "the hand with spread fingers and thumb." Various palm orientations, locations and movements of this handshape determine specific meanings. The number 5 is conveyed by the palm-in position; "age 5" is palm-out. For the sign FINISH (a gloss with uppercase denotes a rough English equivalence), the hand with extended, abducted fingers and thumb is pronated, from palm-up-to-down, and this sign can be used as a suffix for a verb sign for the past and perfect tenses. $5 is a supinated (palm-down-to-up) hand with spread fingers and thumb. The handshape 5 is an unspecified form until it includes a specific palm orientation to denote different functions and uses in ASL.

Synthesis: Being skilled in synthesizing ASL entails the students being able to put sign parts together and to respond to a writing challenge, for example, about a directional verb sign such as, 2-GIVE-3 (You give [something] to her.).

The handshape for the sign GIVE includes the extended thumb with flat, flexed fingers and the finger-thumb pads coming to a closed (touching) position. This handshape is commonly called a flat O, and it becomes a sign when person affixes are included. It is signed with the palm-up; "2-GIVE-3" denotes that a second person (you) and a third person (her or him) are in subject-object agreement, as part of this directional verb sign.

Evaluation: Being skilled in evaluating ASL entails the students being able to: (1) form judgments based on internal evidence in terms of logic, accuracy, and consistency; and on external evidence as related to major linguistic principles and generalizations, as well as students being able to: (2) respond to a writing challenge such as: “Decide whether ASL has undergone a process of language change.”

In 1817, when Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and his colleague Laurent Clerc, a Deaf, French educator, established the first deaf school in Hartford, Connecticut, numerous numbers of Deaf students came from Martha’s Vineyard Island where everyone used sign language. Clerc introduced several important features to the existing sign language: the manual alphabet and variations on sign order and word order. The second wave of language change occurred shortly after Stokoe, Casterline and Croneberg's Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles first appeared in 1965. Some Deaf educators, rather than signing ASL, used the dictionary to attempt to "put English on the hands," in what is called "Manually Coded English." But today there is a sign-language renaissance in full swing that includes a better appreciation of actual ASL.

Comparison and Contrast: Being skilled in comparing and contrasting ASL entails students being able to show how signs and meanings are alike and being able to respond to a writing challenge such as: "Compare the signs GIRL and EVERYDAY." The English words "compare" and "contrast" in an assignment usually indicate that both similarities and differences are to be discussed.

Both signs, GIRL and EVERYDAY, share the same hand configuration, the handshape with flexed fingers and an abducted thumb. They are signed on the same location, cheek, but they differ in the contact parameter. The thumb of the sign GIRL is brushed forward on cheek twice, whereas the dorsal side of the fingers of the sign EVERYDAY is brushed forward on the cheek. When someone wishes to talk about an "everyday girl," he or she might have trouble to make sure sense is not lost in translation, since the sign EVERYDAY would not fit in that context.

Definition: Being skilled in defining ASL entails students being able to give the exact meaning of a sign, show how it differs from other, similar signs, and respond to a writing challenge such as: "Define the finger-thumb position in the I-Love-You handshape."

The I-Love-You handshape includes extended, abducted, index, pinky fingers, and thumb. The middle and ring fingers are extended and flat. If the index and pinky fingers are not abducted, then this handshape would appear awkward and ungrammatical. If the middle and ring fingers are completely extended, the hand configuration is both uncomfortable and non-standard. This handshape also has various functions, as it can represent an airplane, airport or gold. It also can represent the verb TO-FLY.

Description: Being skilled in describing ASL entails students being able to express what signs look like, being able to respond a writing challenge such as: "Describe how various gestures that incorporate the S handshape resemble each other."

The handshape S which is characterized by flexed fingers with a flexed thumb closed over the fingers is very common in gestures. Signs for DRIVING, CYCLING, BEER-DRINKING, and FIGHTING all use the S handshape.

Explanation: Being skilled in explaining ASL entails students being able to tell how or why signs are produced the way they appear, and also being able to respond to a writing prompt, such as: "Explain how handshape assimilation is evident in the ASL utterance: I-KNOW-THAT."

The verb-sign KNOW includes various constituent parts. Its handshape includes the adducted, flat, flexed fingers and abducted thumb. It’s commonly called a bent "open-B" handshape. It is signed with an inward palm orientation and the fingertips contacting the temple. Like most verb-signs, this sign is very dynamic. Both signs, I and THAT, are able to be assimilated as part of the I-KNOW-THAT ASL utterance. Instead of using the index finger handshape for the first person sign in the beginning of the utterance, the bent, open-B handshape is used before signing KNOW, and instead of using the abducted thumb and pinky finger or Y handshape, the open-B handshape is applied.

Illustration: Being skilled in illustrating ASL entails students being able to give examples to support their ideas, and being able to respond to a writing challenge such as: "Illustrate the onset articulatory bundle of the signs GOOD, BETTER, and BEST."

The signs GOOD, BETTER, and BEST follow the hold-movement-hold (HMH) pattern. The sign GOOD starts with the B handshape, palm-in, with the adducted thumb, held on the chin, and ends in the chin-proximal location in the second or coda-hold after the away-from-signer movement. The sign BETTER starts with the same first hold position as the sign GOOD, but it differs in the movement and the second hold aspects; during the sideways movement, the handshape is configured into the handshape A with the thumb remaining abducted. The sign BEST shares the same onset-hold position and the coda-hold handshape as the sign BETTER but differs in the outward-then-upward two-part movement in which the thumb is abducted. 

Proof: Being skilled in providing proof entails students being able to give factual information, for example, to show why ASL is truly a full-fledged language, and also entails students being able to respond to a writing challenge such as: "Prove that initialized signs in ASL have been influenced by langue des signes francias (LSF)."   

The sign in langue des signes francias for the concept "to look for," (translated in French as chercher), is an example of an initialized sign in which the first letter of a French word is signed with the corresponding manual letter C. This particular sign has been borrowed into ASL and is still used in ASL when someone is talking about seeking or looking for something. Most initialized signs in ASL are derived from the first or second letter of the translated English words. The sign THURSDAY, for example, is done with an H handshape.

Summary and Critique: Being skill in summarizing and making critiques entails ASL students being able to give the main points of any text they have read and analyzed, while also being able to respond to a writing challenge such as: "Summarize and give a concise criticism of the book: Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture by Padden and Humphries."

Padden and Humphries’ Deaf in America may someday be regarded as a classic by virtue of its clear prose, as well as because of the way it links the broad elements of Deaf culture to insights gained from the perspectives of both Deaf and hearing people. Deaf in America could be described as something of an insider's view of complex relations which sometimes even seem paradoxical in nature, which reflect the richness of the social web of humanity's diverse elements. The lessons it provides for the individual pursuing gaining fluency in ASL and knowledge of Deaf culture are invaluable. It's a must read for all who feel drawn to know and use ASL. If this book were to be revised, an additional chapter perhaps titled "Learning to Be Hearing" would enable a student of ASL to build in his mind a stairway of cross-linguistic, cross-cultural realization, step by step and be able to climb where one cannot fly. The mind can no more grasp ASL all at once, as a totality, any more than the eye can see spoken English.

There's nothing wrong with the technique of repetition when it comes to teaching how to write about ASL, since repetition, properly administered, can help to induce a comfortable sense of location within a pedagogical space. Even if a particular student outwardly expresses a feeling of having to endure exercises of an awful-tasting-cough-syrup nature, still, that same student is continuing to attend class and is continuing to matriculate through the ASL I, II, III, etc. series. We ought to not then take a literal interpretation of the students' expressed woes.

In my ASL classes, writing students go to work in exactly the opposite way to the students of ASL linguistics; the latter builds up a hierarchical structure of concepts gained through a process of synthesis; the former perform acts of introspection upon concepts that pre-exist in their mental hierarchies as abstractions gained from life experience.

We all know that a concept must be assembled before it can be analyzed. For the topic of ASL and writing about ASL that means an expression must be formulated and conveyed before it can be translated and interpreted.

The point of view from which I approach writing about ASL in this paper differs, so far as I know, from that of all other ASL instructors, for to me such an attitude and such an approach serves as a fountainhead that inspires the expression of ASL in all its visual vibrancy. William C. Stokoe wrote about ASL. Carol Padden and Tom Humphries wrote about its cultural aspects. Clayton Valli wrote about ASL poems. Some might allege that my attempt is ill-founded due to the lack of an ASL orthographic system, but that historical happenstance can hardly be of central concern to our topic. For my part, authentic knowledge comes as a result of its authentic pursuit, and that necessitates a repulsion toward any tendencies of a misleading nature, and, according to the duties I have willingly adopted as language instructor pertaining to matters of academic obligation, I shall stand ready to receive any corrections or criticism from those who might be better informed than I in this writing about this matter.

And so our current story ends, in anticipation of the next, as we continue on our quest of intellectual improvement.

REFERENCES

C. Padden and T. Humphries, 1988, Deaf in America: Voices from a Culture. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

W. C. Stokoe, D. C. Casterline and C. G. Croneberg, 1965, A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles. Silver Spring, MD: Linstok Press.

C. Valli, C. Lucas and K.  J. Mulrooney, 1992, Linguistics of American Sign Language: An Introduction. Washington, D.C.: Clerc Books.

L.S. Vygotsky, 1978, Mind in Society, trans. M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, and E. Souberman. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.