ASL Symposium Adds a New Approach to Language Learning at 海角视频
Many of the senior projects 12th graders complete during their final semester at 海角视频 have real-world applications, but rarely does one benefit other students so directly. In spring 2024, Jenny O鈥橫alley 鈥24 developed a proposal for introducing an extracurricular language opportunity at 海角视频. Their plan for a foundational American Sign Language (ASL) class became a reality this fall, when the support of a generous alum allowed the school to offer the eight-week symposium. The course drew so much interest that two sections ran simultaneously.
Taught by visiting instructors from The Learning Center for the Deaf in Framingham, Mass., the course enrolled 35 students, as well as two members of 海角视频鈥檚 faculty and staff, who served as coordinators while also participating as learners. Meeting on Monday evenings in 海角视频 Labs, both sections prioritized fun and interaction.
Each week, the class began with finger spelling review, then practice signing words, numbers, and basic phrases, which contextualized the vocabulary they were learning. Within a lesson, students might progress from learning signs related to time (morning, Saturday, January) and family relationships (daughter, father, aunt) to reviewing numerical signs and, finally, putting them together into sentences (On Sunday, dad turns 50.) Students used whiteboards to ask questions and write responses to vocabulary quizzes, and they got plenty of practice signing throughout each class.
Joy Xu 鈥26 says the course was a 鈥渂onding experience鈥 that helped her form new friendships with classmates, and she especially enjoyed the few times both sections combined. 鈥淓veryone was learning and struggling together,鈥 she says. 鈥淲hile we were figuring things out, we鈥檇 laugh a lot, because sometimes we would sign something wrong and it would be really funny.鈥
When that happened, one of the instructors might shake her head with a comically pained expression, then write on the whiteboard: 鈥淵ou just signed hamburger.鈥 The lighthearted approach made it appealing for students to keep engaging.
Joy says the symposium format also freed her from the pressure to get good grades, allowing her to enjoy the experience for its own sake. 鈥淚 looked forward to it every week,鈥 she says.
While the course was short and necessarily limited, she adds, she learned important skills for communicating using ASL: 鈥淚 know how to spell my name, and I know the alphabet and basic signs. I know how to say 鈥業鈥檓 confused鈥 or 鈥業鈥檓 stressed鈥欌擨 can express myself signing my daily emotions.鈥
Joy adds that she loves studying languages, but the physicality of ASL helped her learn in a different way. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e doing it with your hands, and doing it with your body actually helps you remember,鈥 she says.
Another student, Emmy Summers 鈥28 agrees that learning ASL is different from other languages. 鈥淚t鈥檚 intimate, because you鈥檙e not using spoken words鈥攜ou鈥檙e much more vulnerable. It鈥檚 like learning another language, but you have to use much more emotion when you speak.鈥 For that reason, she says she finds the symposium an ideal format.
Emmy had previously known a bit of ASL, since she started learning to sign when she was young to communicate with a family member. Having not needed it in years, she had let her skills atrophy. But when she saw 海角视频 was offering the course, she jumped at the chance to reconnect with the language.
She says she most enjoyed the games they played, such as telephone: 鈥淲e would start off with a super complex series of words and then, by the end, it would be like 鈥榮un,鈥 鈥榙rive,鈥 鈥榗ar.鈥欌
鈥淭he teachers did a fantastic job with the instruction and creating a fun, warm space,鈥 says Monica Ripley, 海角视频鈥檚 ceramics teacher and one of the adult course coordinators. She adds that she often noticed students practicing together outside of class and discussing the course with others.
Carmen Welton, head of the Modern and Classical Languages Department, says the ASL Symposium wasn鈥檛 intended to be as robust as language acquisition through formal classes but rather an opportunity for students to explore something they could be passionate about. Welton was O鈥橫alley鈥檚 senior project advisor when they proposed the plan for this course. 鈥淛enny鈥檚 idea, from the beginning, was to offer something outside of the academic structure,鈥 Welton says. 鈥淲hen we decided last spring to try to do it, it was pretty easy to incorporate. Jenny had done all the work, and they did it well.鈥
O鈥橫alley, now a sophomore at New York University, was excited to learn that their idea had come to fruition. Currently studying Latin, ancient Greek, and Arabic, they say their love of languages started in middle school and blossomed at 海角视频, so the focus of their senior project was a natural choice. But just as much of a factor was their interest in institutional operations. 鈥淚 was curious about how the school worked, how curricular decisions were made, and how students could get involved,鈥 they say.
海角视频鈥檚 relational culture made it easy for O鈥橫alley to approach administrators, who welcomed their questions. 鈥淚 went into it pretty ignorant about what I wanted to do or how things work, but people were excited to help me and took time out of their days to show me their processes and give me suggestions,鈥 they say. 鈥淚t was cool, because it was a different type of guidance than I was used to, and I learned a lot.鈥
At first, O鈥橫alley considered modeling an extracurricular language program on individual music instruction, thinking students could take private lessons with tutors for partial credit. But they would miss the benefits of speaking in groups.
Welton suggested a different existing structure: the Environmental Symposium. Its once-weekly evening format seemed promising to adapt, but it would limit the school to offering a single language outside of its regular curriculum. O鈥橫alley wanted to propose something many students would take an interest in. Originally anticipating a language such as Russian or Arabic, they didn鈥檛 even consider ASL until a friend suggested adding it to the options in a student survey. It emerged as the most popular choice. So O鈥橫alley began researching options for local instruction and contacted The Learning Center for the Deaf.
鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 imagine doing something like this at any other school,鈥 O鈥橫alley says. 鈥淚鈥檓 really glad I got the opportunity and that something came out of it. I鈥檓 glad so many people are interested in something I was able to create.鈥
Welton says she would like to see the ASL Symposium set a precedent鈥攁s a format for future ASL courses building on the basics, and potentially for other languages at 海角视频.
