UCLA offers summer GE class about the structural and cultural aspects of ASL

This summer, UCLA will implement an American Sign Language class for the first time in the university’s recent history.

The course will not be geared toward the mechanics of learning how to sign, but will instead teach the structural and cultural aspects of ASL, said Natasha Abner, the course’s instructor and a doctoral student in linguistics.

“Out of the classes I am scheduled to teach, I am most excited to teach this one,” said Abner, who wrote her thesis and is now writing her dissertation on the structure of signing.

She said she was scheduled to teach the same class last summer, but it was cancelled because of low attendance.

“The course was offered during the pay-per-credit summer quarter, and since it didn’t fulfill any requirements, only a couple of people signed up,” Abner said.

This year, she petitioned the linguistics department for the class to satisfy General Education requirements. The course, titled Linguistics 3, will now satisfy one of two GE categories: philosophical and linguistic analysis, or cultural and literary analysis.

Abner said the class will attempt to analyze the deaf community as a cultural subgroup, highlighting that deafness is not a handicap but rather a cultural identity. Primarily a linguistics course, the class will also examine structural universals, such as sentence construction, as well as characteristics unique to ASL.

Tim Stowell, dean of the humanities division in the UCLA College of Letters and Science, said he is supportive of the ASL “structure and culture” class coming this summer.

“Sign languages like ASL are just as complicated and full of grammatical rules and thousands of words as any spoken language, but there are also special sociological and political issues related to the deaf community,” Stowell said.

Third-year English student Blaine Fuller said he is excited at the prospect of UCLA opening its hands to the deaf community, but said he also feels slighted that the class won’t cover the movements and gestures of sign language.

“I’m waiting for an opportunity to learn how to communicate and personally involve myself in the community,” Fuller said.