American Sign Language Curricula: A Review

American Sign Language is widely taught in secondary schools and universities in the USA, unlike in the UK. Deaf academic Russell Rosen surveys the approaches to language teaching used in these curricula, showing their theoretical foundations stretch back to the early 20th century. He concludes with a plea for ASL curricula to follow more recent developments in theories of language teaching, to incorporate more about Deaf culture and society into the curriculum. For a UK readership this article is interesting because there are actually many US textbooks and courses available to compare, whereas in the UK little is published.

There is an exponential growth in the number of schools that offer American Sign Language (ASL) for foreign language credit and the different ASL curricula that were published. This study analyses different curricula in its assumptions regarding language, learning, and teaching of second languages. It is found that curricula vary in their assumptions, and can be classified along the three main theoretical frameworks: behaviourism, linguisticism, and communication. Strengths and weaknesses of each theoretical framework are identified in second language acquisition research. Current second language theories of language, learning, and teaching are described, and suggestions are offered for future curriculum in ASL.

back