While University students studying spoken languages have the opportunity to strengthen their fluency through study abroad programs, students learning American Sign Language do not have such options.
Instead, ASL students at the University have the opportunity to develop their skills through signing lunches that are held at the Pavilion in Newcomb Hall every Friday. The lunches are organized by Deafness Education and Awareness for All Students, a contracted independent organization on Grounds.
The signing lunches are completely silent and the only language allowed is ASL. The lunches are informal and allow students of all ASL levels to interact with one another, said Alissa Gador, DEAFS secretary and third-year College student.
ASL Lecturer Gregory Propp stated in an e-mail that the signing lunches “are a great opportunity for students taking American Sign Language at U.Va. to painlessly reinforce what they are learning in the classroom by meeting and practicing their signing skills with their classmates.”
Those in attendance at the lunch include ASL students, ASL professors, deaf University students, CODAS — children of deaf adults who know ASL — and deaf members of the Charlottesville community. Usually, 15 to 20 people in addition to the professors attend the lunch.
Although most students attending the lunches have some connection to either ASL or deaf culture, all students and friends are welcome, even if they do not know a single sign.
Most of the ASL students are second-year students or older because many of the beginning students are not confident enough in their signing abilities to come, Gador noted. Often, they do not believe they can hold a conversation in sign language for an hour.
First-year College student Kirsten Arritt goes to the lunches every Friday to improve her signing skills.
“Three days a week for only 50 minutes [in class] is hardly enough to get my hands in shape,” Arritt said. “It is so easy to forget handshapes or just what that sign means.”
The Friday lunches allow Arritt to reinforce the signs she learns in the classroom.
Having both beginning and advanced language students attend the lunches allows the more fluent students to help those just beginning.
“Often, I find myself at a loss for how to express myself with signs, but everyone is willing to introduce new signs or even try and understand my charades,” Arritt said.
Propp considers the signing lunches an invaluable tool for ASL students to either maintain a high average or improve their grade in the class. Propp recalls one student who improved her quiz average by 15 points, mostly as a result of attending each signing lunch. He also noted that the lunches can be a great way to find ASL tutors.
Gador said she believes her signing ability improved “100 percent” by attending the lunches and said the lunches especially helped her with facial expressions and eye contact.
“All of sign language grammar is on the face,” Gador said, explaining that the expressions of the eyebrows and eyes can be “a struggle for incoming students” who already find it hard expressing themselves in spoken language.
In sign language, it is also rude to break eye contact with the person to whom you are speaking. This can be difficult for students who frequently text and e-mail while having conversations, Gador said.
Along with increasing student knowledge about ASL, the lunches also teach students about deaf culture and the deaf community.
In the deaf culture, people always introduce themselves and are very open about the details of their lives, Gador explained. Introductions include more than just a name, often incorporating a description of oneself, she added.
Arritt said the openness of deaf culture is amazing, and the students and professors model this same ideal at the lunches.
The deaf culture also sees itself as having a single identity, Gador said, nothing that while the hearing community is often autonomous, she noted, deaf culture strives for achievement as a group, not of as an individual, because deaf culture wants to help spread success across the greater community.
By bringing deaf people from the University and community to the lunches, students are exposed to the diversity of the deaf. Last Friday, for instance, some teachers and students from the Charlottesville school system’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing program visited. Students at the lunches also see first hand the self-sufficiency of the deaf community. Gador stated that “sign language students don’t take [ASL] as a charity case. They take it to learn another culture.”
Not only do the signing lunches help current ASL students, but they also help bring more students into the ASL department. Propp said the lunches give more exposure to the ASL program, because many students see how much their peers enjoy the lunches and decide to become a part of the University’s ASL program.
While the lunches mostly help current University students, they also help the University attract high school students. The signing lunches have attracted the attention of many prospective students, Propp said.
Additionally, the signing lunches allow University students to form stronger relationships with their professors while meeting new people they would not have otherwise known. Arritt found her future roommate, first-year College student Beth Gurney, through the lunches.
Gador said the signing lunches are “just like having lunch with a bunch of friends,” only without speaking.
Students such as Gador reap the rewards of such an experience.
“Now that [ASL is] a part of my life, I can’t leave it,” she said.
Read More
An ode to running
By Malone Morchower | YesterdayIn addition to providing me with opportunities to connect with others around Grounds, I really value the way that running immerses me in time and place.
Khul Ke Nacho — a celebration of free-spirited dancing
By Malaika Rehman | 2 days agoThe sea of attendees wearing desi attire and dancing joyfully throughout the night was a reflection of the thriving Pakistani community in and outside of PSA.
Holding onto every grain in the hourglass
By Mai Hukuoka | 3 days agoNow that I’m back at school, I have made it my mission to take note of the sneaky passage of time.
