At colleges throughout the nation, enrollment in American Sign Language (ASL) courses is increasing, notes the Associated Press. These colleges offer ASL as a foreign language, which appears to be a draw for students. Why are students flocking to these courses? “I just thought it was a beautiful language, ” Kelly King, an ASL at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. However, this novel tongue is not universally embraced by colleges. Douglas Baynton, an ASL professor at the University of Iowa notes, “I think one of the reasons that people will be skeptical is because they’re so used to thinking of languages as being spoken. The idea that you can have a language on your hands is just very foreign.”
As of yet, Dartmouth does not have an ASL program. If some students feel that this situation needs to be remedied, Dartmouth could have an issue on its hands.
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