There are many reasons to study ASL and learn about Deaf culture. Below are several reasons why taking ASL courses at CU-ºù«ÍÞÊÓƵ may benefit you as a prospective student:
1. Experience a different way of learning language. By learning ASL, students can develop knowledge and skills to connect, compare, and interpret the linguistic structure of other languages, including spoken languages.
2. Expand and diversify your communication partners. By learning ASL, students can expand their ability to communicate with diverse communication partners, including young children who have not yet acquired spoken language, Deaf individuals and people who are hard of hearing; and individuals experiencing communication disorders such as Autism, Down’s Syndrome, stuttering, and aphasia. Students can also gain skills in cultural complexity by honing their knowledge and interactional skills with people from diverse cultural backgrounds, including Deaf culture.
3. Increase your spatial reasoning, reaction time, and body language. The right-hemisphere of the brain is frequently used for spatial reasoning and research shows that people who use sign language to communicate engage their right hemisphere more while signing. By learning ASL, students may improve spatial reasoning by engaging their right hemisphere. Because ASL is a visual-spatial language, reaction times and the ability to recognize and use body language to communicate may also improve.
4. Expand career opportunities and skills. By learning ASL, students can gain invaluable communication skills that will be an asset in a variety of career paths, from audiology to speech-language pathology to psychology to counseling to engineering and to the arts.