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Monday, August 31, 2009

Sign language is popular with hearing students

Jessica Berumen rushed over to a friend after she walked into class and saw almost everyone sitting silently but speaking frantically with their hands.

The 17-year-old positioned her fingers to ask: "It's finals today?" When her friend nodded, "Yes," Berumen stomped her foot and slapped her hand against her lips.

Then her hands fell to her sides and she relaxed. With clear enunciation, she said: "I'm sure it'll be OK."

Berumen isn't deaf. Neither is her friend.

The students at Skyline High School in Sammamish are taking American Sign Language -- a class that has become increasingly popular among the nation's hearing students as a foreign-language requirement. About 2,200 students in the Puget Sound region chose ASL over Spanish, French, Japanese and German this year.

Teachers say they're not surprised by the growing popularity of ASL. They note that teens have a difficult time sitting through entire classes all day without much movement. Sign language speaks to them: It's active and visual.

Interest in ASL is so great that many high schools want to offer more classes, but they can't find educators to teach the courses. That's partly because of a backlog at colleges and universities.

"There is quite a demand for ASL here, but it's hard to approve new faculty because of budget cuts," said Karen Knaughton, assistant professor in the foreign-language department at Central Washington University.

Seattle Central Community College offers an ASL program, but CWU wants to become the first university in the state to offer an ASL major and minor.

The university can't hire more staffers, but the minor should be available by the fall of 2004, Knaughton said. She said she isn't sure when the school will be able to offer the major.

In the meantime, CWU can't accommodate all the students who want to learn ASL. The foreign-language department turned away 50 students last fall because its six classes -- taught by one part-time and two full-time professors -- were full.

"Students see a practical use for ASL and can use it in a job -- interpreting, teaching and counseling," she said.

Indeed, about 10 percent of the Western Washington population has been classified as deaf or hard of hearing, and many of them rely on interpreters in various situations.

In 2001, more than 1,400 public school students were classified as deaf or hearing-impaired in Washington. Of those, 1,023 attended schools in Western Washington.

Several high schools in Washington are having trouble starting ASL programs, and schools that offer them often must turn students away.

Bellevue High School tried to start providing ASL classes four years ago, but had to abandon the effort when the school couldn't find a committed teacher to fill the spot.

Doug Hostetter, principal of Kentwood High School in Kent, said: "Our program is extremely popular. We could add two more classes."

That would translate into a half-time position. He hasn't found a teacher to sign up for it.

At Skyline, "the classes are usually full with a waiting list," said Cozette Amador, an ASL-certified interpreter who teaches the school's five ASL classes.

"ASL teachers are hard to find," Amador said. "There is more money in interpreting than in teaching."

ASL classes have been offered in Washington for about 20 years. The Puyallup, Auburn and Fife school districts are among the most recent to begin offering the classes.

Students who do make it into ASL programs often become involved in after-school activities and events that allow them to interact with the deaf community and learn more about signing skills. One such event, Silent Games, recently held at Federal Way High School, involved about 200 college, high school and middle school students and their parents -- some hearing, some deaf. The participants took part in a variety of games and competitions and could not speak all evening. They could use only sign language.

It was at one of those events three years ago that Meghan Myers developed an interest in ASL. She began taking classes because it "looked cool."

The reason she's stuck with it goes deeper. "I'm dyslexic, so I know the struggles people go through in learning with a disability," said the 17-year-old senior.

"This is something that I'm good at, that I feel confident doing and that I can make a lot of money doing," said Myers, who hopes to become a certified interpreter some day.

Each country has its own form of sign language and several English variations exist, but ASL is used most commonly among the deaf community in the United States and Canada. Body language and facial expressions are exaggerated and students must learn a different sentence construction. For example, "Letter me finish write" and "Dance, I like" are grammatically correct in ASL.

The difference between tired and exhausted involves simply hunching the body over into a slump.

To say that it is cold out, clinch both fists and place them in front of your shoulders. Your arms should be parallel to your body. Now, shake your fists.

ASL isn't about memorizing a bunch of signs, however.

"It was a lot of work because you constantly use your eyes to catch all the signs and facial gestures," said Kassie Bland, a 19-year-old senior at Kentridge High School in Kent. "People think it's easy because it's not spoken, but it's not."

Some students take ASL hoping for an easy A but don't get it, said Loretta Watanabe, Kentridge's only ASL teacher. "If some of my kids never do anything with it, they at least come out with an awareness of the culture," she said.

Watanabe said many hearing people tend to think that the deaf community "needs to be fixed."

For one day each semester, Watanabe teaches her students by example when she gives each a pair of earplugs to wear all day.

"They find their teachers are taking to them like they're an idiot -- loud and slow -- and their friends are like, 'I'm tired of writing to you! I'll see you tomorrow,' " she said.

Ron Podmore, who is deaf and teaches ASL to hearing students at Decatur High School in Federal Way, said the hearing community has historically been unforgiving to deaf people.

In the 1880s, deaf people were told to read lips and speak instead of use sign language so they would be more like those who can hear.

"The deaf have been learning the language of the hearing for the past 150 years," Podmore said. "Now it's time for the hearing to learn the language of the deaf."

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