In 1960, a GU linguistics professor, William Stokoe, created Stokoe’s Notation System, giving each sign three parts; location, handshape, and movement. His system proved ASL was a language with unique syntax and grammar. In 1965, he published the first ASL dictionary. Deaf adults advocated for ASL because language is a means of expression and ASL’s the language of the deaf.
American Sign Language: The Impact it Made on Deaf People
Official Language
"Stokoe Notation" (Hochgensang, 2018)
Total Communication
In 1970, a teaching philosophy, Total Communication (TC), incorporated all communication forms: signing, speech, lip-reading, etc. “Total Communication is a philosophy requiring the incorporation of appropriate aural, manual, and oral modes of communication in order to insure effective communication with and among hearing impaired persons” (Gannon, 369). Abdelrahman Elfouly, a deaf engineer, said using all methods helped him, but recommended learning ASL. He said “when there is more in-depth stuff with hearing people, if they know ASL, they will definitely sign” [Elfouly, 2023].
Interview Clips (Elfouly, 2023)
Some educators use TC to avoid ASL. Simultaneous Communication, a TC method, uses ASL signs alongside English. When signing, the sentence structure matches spoken English, not ASL’s grammar. Deaf people indicated it limited their communications (Berkowitz & Jonas, pg. 68-139). Cued speech, another TC method, doesn’t account for multi-meaning words. In signed English, “run” has one symbol whether used in “Run for office” or “Run fast”. In ASL “run” has different signs in different contexts.
Run for Office (Youtube, 2017)
Run Fast (Youtube, 2016)
Impact →