By Vanessa Donadio, News Editor
Every Education major at St. Bonaventure University is required to obtain three credits from a foreign language class to graduate. The languages offered include Spanish, French, Italian, Latin and Arabic. American Sign Language (ASL) is also available to fill the language requirement, but only for education majors.
Professor Angela Reisner, who has been teaching ASL courses at St. Bonaventure for six years, said ASL became open to education majors in recent years. She said she is unaware of why it does not count for other majors as a language requirement, but she thinks it is important for education majors to learn.
“For teachers, knowing American Sign Language is a great skill to have, and not just if they are lucky enough to have a deaf student someday. Sign language can be used to communicate with some nonverbal students. Many teachers use signs in their classes without deaf students. For example, teachers have students use the sign for the bathroom instead of raising their hands and disrupting the class,” said Reisner. “Other teachers use the fingerspelling alphabet to practice spelling words or the word of the day. If teachers do have a deaf student someday, knowing some ASL can help open up communication with that student, and the teacher will have some knowledge about what to expect in terms of how to work with the student and accommodations that they may use.”
Since Reisner is a CODA (Child of a Deaf Adult), ASL contains personal meaning to her. Reisner grew up using sign language at home. She has taught several community classes in Olean and Bradford with her father, and she has worked as an interpreter in schools and at other places in the Olean area.
Some students in other majors have complained about ASL not being offered toward their language requirement. Reisner confirmed that she has had quite a few students over the years voice their discontent about it not fulfilling that requirement. This led to a new club being added at St. Bonaventure.
“Two of those students did create the ASL club on campus a few years ago. The club teaches some sign language and organizes events with members of the local Deaf community, which gives students who can’t take the class a chance to learn some ASL vocabulary,” Reisner said.
Dean Aaron Chimbel of the Jandoli School has not heard widespread complaints on the matter, but has noticed some individuals ask questions about sign language. He believes that for other majors to benefit from learning ASL, it would depend on what field they were in.
“Any language is beneficial to students, and many journalists who work abroad are fluent or conversant in multiple languages. Students I have worked with find Spanish to be particularly useful because of the significant number of people in this country who speak Spanish as their primary language. Students should consider their career goals when deciding which language to pursue,” said Chimbel.
For anyone interested in learning sign language, both the ASL club and the classes provide opportunities to do so.
“For me, teaching ASL is so important because the more people who know sign language, the more equal access the deaf community has,” said Reisner. “Many students have contacted me after they finished taking ASL (and some while taking the class) and told me about different situations where they were able to use their knowledge to communicate with someone they met at work, school, and out in the community.”
donadivj16@bonaventure.edu
