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The, Impact ifA.SL ~esearch on the, American rneqfccrmmumtc1 JAMES TUCKER his article explores the observed and potential effects of American Sign Language (ASL) research on the American Deaf community. The new and everexpanding body of knowledge demonstrating that ASL is a separate language with its own grammatical rules-rules not derived from English-has changed how Deaf people, both as individuals and as members of a group, perceive themselves and their social environment. ASL is now a driving force behind the emergence of the Deaf community as a visible and vibrant minority group. In the 1800s, many residential schools for Deaf children and young Deaf adults were established across the country. These schools were the bedrock and the wellspring of the Deaf community. In their years at the residential schools, young students solidified relationships that lasted throughout their lifetimes. Their language, ASL, with its origins in old French Sign Language and old American Sign Language, evolved and endured over the generations. ASL was passed on by Deaf parents to their Deaf children and, in the residential schools, from Deaf children of Deaf parents to Deaf children of hearing parents. Educators, primarily those who advocated oral education, attempted to eradicate ASL from Deaf children, but this attempt was-and continues to be-futile. The resiliency of ASL is not surprising. Deaf people communicate with their hands, face, and body and for their eyes. ASL is simply a language that meets the needs of Deaf people to communicate visually with one another using their bodies. More recent attempts by educators to teach Deaf students various forms of Manually Coded English (MCE)-sign systems using ASL signs in English word order-also have been unsuccessful . Researchers now see MCE signs being ASL-ized-the children are imposing ASL grammatical rules on MCE signs. Today, ASL is signed in the Deaf community across the country. Deaf people gather locally, regionally, and nationally for social, political, religious, and athletic functions. The Deaf community is not homogeneous, and its leadership is fragmented. But the increasingly powerful Deaf consumer group is making demands on industry, education, and the law. The rallying force behind this is, of course, the Deaf experience and the language of Deaf people, ASL. In the 1960s, the Civil Rights movement, the recognition of language minority groups, and new psycholinguistic theories of language that allowed formulation of questions about sign languages together paved the way for the emergence of metalinguistic awareness in the Deaf community. This awareness enabled Deaf people not only to sign ASL and to think in ASL, but to think and sign about ASL. Linguistic research gave 366 THE DEAF WAY ~ The Study of Sign Language in Society ASL credibility and brought attention to ASL users, Deaf people, and then to the Deaf community. Deaf people, branded for centuries as deaf and dumb, capable only of expressing concrete concepts through crude gestures, now are being recognized as a linguistic minority group using ASL, a visual-gestural language possessing the same kinds of grammatical properties as any other language. Many Deaf people have become selfconscious about their language use, and a few Deaf ASL researchers have set up their own ASL research labs. Deaf people now esteem the elegant signing of highly articulate members of the Deaf community. Moreover, Deaf people are able to recognize the continuum of sign systems: ASL, Pidgin Sign English (a rudimentary sign system used for communication between Deaf and hearing people), and MCE. In Deaf theater, new forms of experimentation with signs and storytelling reflect awareness of ASL structure. Most significantly, ASL research has for the first time enabled Deaf people to talk about ASL as an object. This metalinguistic awareness is the new vehicle for members of the Deaf community to understand their social environment and to facilitate changes in their everyday lives to meet their cultural, social, economic, religious, educational, employment, and political needs. The sum of all these needs may be translated into communication needs. Using ASLIEnglish interpreters has bridged the gulf between the Deaf community and the hearing community. As a result, Deaf people are making advances in areas that were once uncharted. The research on ASL has influenced Deaf people in various ways. The majority of Deaf people are still ignorant or ambivalent about ASL. In 1984, the National Association of the Deaf, the largest Deaf advocacy group, passed a resolution recognizing ASL as the language of Deaf people. This act was long overdue, and it sparked no celebrations .There are...

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