The NIC Sentinel

Issue date: 2/1/10 Section: Back Page

Media Credit: John Monnier Jacalyn Marosi, ASL instructor, demonstrates signs.

Media Credit: John Monnier Doug Tapani, 24, learned ASL at NIC.

The language for most deaf signers in the United States is American Sign Language (ASL), a complex visual-spatial language utilizing facial expressions, body movement and hand signs to communicate.

ASL has its own syntax and slang, just like spoken languages. ASL does not follow the same grammatical rules as English; it is a visual language, not a written one. However, ASL has two writing systems, phoemic Stokoe notation and SignWriting, which conveys the language with abstract illustrations.

Linsey Baker, 25, NIC graduate, uses ASL every day. She received her masters in communications disorders from Eastern Washington University and works as an outpatient speech language pathologist at KMC.

"ASL is a full language used to communicate with deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals," Baker said. "It's also a great way to both stimulate early childhood language and help them communicate."

According to Jacalyn Marosi, 30, ASL instructor, before ASL families with a deaf member employed homemade signs to communicate with each other. In 1815 Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, a minister, went to Europe to research methods of teaching deaf children. He first went to London to investigate the Braidwood Schools, which taught the oral method (teaching deaf students to speak). However, they refused to disclose their practices. In France he met a deaf Frenchman who taught him French Sign Language (FSL).

"He brought FSL back to the United States," Marosi said, "specifically to Martha's Vineyard where there was a large deaf population. The deaf community then adopted the grammatical aspects of FSL into some of the common signs they were using at the time. The first deaf school opened in 1817. ASL has been used and evolving since then in the U.S. and Canada."

Marosi said she didn't have a deaf family member, but befriended a deaf student at the College of Southern Idaho and he taught her some sign language. She took ASL 101 the following fall, and by ASL 102 she was hooked.

"It's a cool story," Marosi said. "Then one day I realized that I needed to be involved with the deaf community for the rest of my life. I nearly immersed myself in it since then. I took all the classes I could and received an AA in sign language studies, then received a BA in ASL/English later from Western Oregon University. I got my first job out of college working as the staff interpreter here at NIC. Two years after that I began teaching and fell in love with that. I earned two national interpreter certifications from the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID) in the fall of 2008."

Marosi said it took her about four years to become proficient at ASL and five years to become fluent.

"That seems fairly typical for a hearing person taking college level classes each semester and being involved with the deaf community," Marosi said. "However, a person could be what I call 'conversational' halfway through my 102 class. My unconventional teaching style is generally appealing to students because it works. It's fun, it's intense, and it's real world."

Doug Tapani, 24, education major, was born deaf. He said his older brother, Jason, took ASL at NIC and convinced him to try it.

"I was shocked and surprised," Tapani signed. "I understood more for the first time in my life."

Tapani said he fell in love with ASL because it's a beautiful, graceful language.

"ASL has helped me learn a lot in the deaf community here in Cd'A," Tapani wrote. "I understand how to communicate without writing back and forth as a deaf person would do. I'm the vice president for the NIDC (North Idaho Deaf Club) in Coeur d'Alene. Learning ASL will help me because I'm afraid that one day I'll become fully deaf and won't able to speak English, but will only be able to use ASL to communicate."

Marosi said that ASL is the third most commonly used language in the United States, so ASL proficiency has uses in any sort of professional or social setting.

NIC offers four levels of ASL, and ASL classes can be used as a foreign language credit. Marosi said she has about 55 students this semester.

"I have one student who identifies himself as deaf," Marosi said, "and several others who have some hearing loss and consider themselves to be hard of hearing. Mostly my students are hearing with little or no previous language background prior to taking my class."

Marosi said she's taught for five years, interpreted as a "freelance interpreter" in the community since 2003, and has been involved with the local deaf community.

"I love it all," Marosi said. "In today's tough times, I am so fortunate to be doing the work that I love. I wish that our society was as demanding of a bilingual population as other societies because it opens so many opportunities in so many realms."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools