More college students sign up for sign language
When Bethany Campbell was about 7 years old, a deaf couple who attended her church in Fulton, Mo., began teaching her to sign. Now 21, Ms. Campbell, who hears, says that when she first registered at nearby William Woods University, her goal was to become a nurse who served the deaf community. But she enjoyed her freshman American Sign Language (ASL) courses more than she'd expected she would.
"I looked forward to [ASL] class every day," says Campbell, who decided to switch majors and enrolled in the interpretive degree program. Her university is one of about 25 in North America offering a four-year degree. "Why not do something for the rest of my life that I enjoy?"
Campbell has already practiced interpreting speakers at her school, and says she especially likes interpreting music. She expects to find work as an educational interpreter for a deaf student in a hearing classroom. "Each person has a totally different background and performance that they give," she explains. "It's a challenge to meet their tone and body language, to match this to your own interpretation, and change it into a whole new language."
Campbell is among a growing group of hearing people studying sign language in the US and Canada. The Modern Language Association's most recent survey of US colleges and universities shows that in terms of percentage growth, only Arabic and biblical Hebrew surpassed ASL enrollments from 1998 to 2003. From 1993 to 1998, ASL had the largest gains.
A number of factors have contributed to the huge increase in availability of classes.
Many of today's college students select majors that will lead to gainful employment. The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, which guarantees deaf and hard-of-hearing people the right to interpretive services, has ensured steady work for interpreters. The salary for an entry-level interpretive job is comparable to that of a first-year teacher.
But unlike teachers, some interpreters can demand - and receive - more money. Those who have the skills and passion "could work 24 hours a day if they wanted to," according to Carolyn Ball, who directs the William Woods program.
"Colleges and universities can't fill their [educational interpreter] positions because there are not enough people with degrees."
Historically, many colleges didn't offer ASL courses, and wouldn't accept credits from other schools. Linguistic research about the complexities of ASL grammar has helped ease some of these academic prejudices.
ASL's high visibility makes a lot of people curious, especially in regions where there is a large signing population. The city of Rochester, N.Y., is one such place, as it is home to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and the Rochester School for the Deaf.
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