Crom Saunders MLA Presentation Session 96- The De-Globalization of World Sign Languages (original) (raw)

The De-­‐Globalization of World Sign Language English has long been acknowledged as the language of commerce, the language of education, and the language of the privileged, worldwide. This status comes out of a long history of colonization by the British Empire, which spilled over into American business, treaty, education, and expansion. One might even say the offspring republic has far exceeded the teachings of its parent country. This American language trend has neatly duplicated itself in a parallel version of language colonialism, language elitism, and language pervasion. American Sign Language (ASL) has held a position of high regard and recognition, in addition to legal protection and popular appeal, not only in America, but around the world as well. The groundbreaking American with Disabilities Act law set forth a complex machinery of language influence, due to the proliferation of ASL courses, ASL in popular media, the ASL-­‐English interpreting field, Deaf Studies programs,...