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ASL Pah!: Deaf Students' Perspectives on Their Language
Examines deaf student's perceptions of the role of ASL in their lives. Text contains essays and journal entries on how ASL affected their lives. Tape contains excerpts from interviews with these same students.
Paperback
First published December 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 18, 2010
I read this book for my book report book in My Implications of Deafness class at school.
I picked it because one of my friends really likes Clayton Valli, who was an instructor at Gallaudet University, (the only Deaf Liberal Arts University in the world) and he co-edited the book. The book has an accompanying video tape. The book and the tape (which I didn't view because it's in ASL and has no english subtitles) are comprised of essays and journal entries from students who are taking a class called, Introduction to the Structure of ASL in the 1990/1991 school year. They were asked about the role of American Sign Language (ASL) in their lives. Also other questions:
When did you learn ASL?
How did you learn ASL?
What was your life like before you learned ASL?
How do you feel about learning and using ASL?
How is using ASL part of your identity?
Talk about your educational background and the role of ASL and language in general in your education.
Eventually the students decided that they would like to make their assignments into a book. PAH is the english gloss for the ASL sign which can be translated as "Finally" or "At Last" and reflects the student's feelings that ASL was at long last being recognized as a legitimate language and taking its proper place as the medium of instruction in some deaf education programs.
Note: Gloss is commonly used in written texts to explain a grammatical structure of signed phrases and sentences. ASL is a visual language and when it is translated into writing as with many other languages, some meaning is lost or can't be wholly translated.
What I liked about the book was the diversity of responses from the students and the discoveries that they made about themselves and the language as they took this class. I am studying the language and am in an interpreting program. I would love to someday teach Deaf Students using ASL as the medium in which to convey information/instruct.
I picked it because one of my friends really likes Clayton Valli, who was an instructor at Gallaudet University, (the only Deaf Liberal Arts University in the world) and he co-edited the book. The book has an accompanying video tape. The book and the tape (which I didn't view because it's in ASL and has no english subtitles) are comprised of essays and journal entries from students who are taking a class called, Introduction to the Structure of ASL in the 1990/1991 school year. They were asked about the role of American Sign Language (ASL) in their lives. Also other questions:
When did you learn ASL?
How did you learn ASL?
What was your life like before you learned ASL?
How do you feel about learning and using ASL?
How is using ASL part of your identity?
Talk about your educational background and the role of ASL and language in general in your education.
Eventually the students decided that they would like to make their assignments into a book. PAH is the english gloss for the ASL sign which can be translated as "Finally" or "At Last" and reflects the student's feelings that ASL was at long last being recognized as a legitimate language and taking its proper place as the medium of instruction in some deaf education programs.
Note: Gloss is commonly used in written texts to explain a grammatical structure of signed phrases and sentences. ASL is a visual language and when it is translated into writing as with many other languages, some meaning is lost or can't be wholly translated.
What I liked about the book was the diversity of responses from the students and the discoveries that they made about themselves and the language as they took this class. I am studying the language and am in an interpreting program. I would love to someday teach Deaf Students using ASL as the medium in which to convey information/instruct.
January 22, 2025
This was an eye opener as I couldn’t believe that so many deaf children were deprived of ASL and was even told it would “ruin” them. It’s unfortunate that ignorance lead to many deaf children and hearing parents missing out on a language that simply could have been learned to better the lives of deaf children. In 2025 these concerns are still being raised and I can only hope that the allies for ASL are fighting for the language to continue to be offered and used by the Deaf.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews