History Behind The Creation Of American Sign Language

The formation of language proves human consciousness and the significance of human connection and communication. The creation of sign language displays the human ability to organize cognitive processes and ability to organize thinking processes despite the absence of spoken language/hearing ability. Identity of a group of people or individual is largely determined by- but not limited to- the language they speak, their beliefs, their values, and their culture. To understand and successfully connect with deaf people, it is essential to understand Deaf Culture, the history behind the creation of American Sign Language, the ideology of both deaf and hearing people, and the relationship between culture and language. Deaf culture is a complex and

The creation and education of the language allows for deaf people to not only continue their education that may have been stunted in a hearing school, but collectively teach a cohesive language that enables deaf people to successfully understand and thrive together. Knowing the history behind ASL not only gives a foundation of knowledge to those learning the language, but shows the history and purpose that led to the creation of both the language and the class a student is in learning ASL. Personally, grasping the history that led to my own ASL class gives a feeling of connection as well as appreciation to everything put in to create and teach the language Ideology is created through the feelings and values that form beliefs about the world. Because deaf people place significantly less importance on spoken language and hearing, the ideology differs largely from the values and beliefs held by hearing people. With the majority of the population containing hearing people, the values of the majority are then pushed and expected on a daily basis, alienating deaf people from the surrounding community and

Understanding the problems in hearing ideology and understanding differences in hearing versus deaf ideology allows for more compassion and acceptance of deaf people. This is important in the classroom because it is essential and non-negotiable to view and treat deaf people with the utmost respect and refute the narrative that they are disabled or broken. This is personally important because I am aware of and actively try my best to identify and remove my own hearing ideology to better learn and understand ASL, the deaf community, and Deaf Culture. The formation of both a language and culture are synchronous; there is a necessity to understand a culture through its direct language to gain complete comprehension of both. Language and culture both directly act on assumptions about the world, which may differ drastically depending on what culture or language the person comes from/speaks. In Deaf Culture, ASL is a manifestation of the culture and the presentation of the language differs quite differently from the direct translation from spoken English. Understanding and appropriately signing and communicating comes with the grasp of the ideology of deaf