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Speaking without words

Oliver Lockhart, Features Editor
Published: May 14, 2009

JADE TURGEL / Contributing Photographer

A student participates in ASL class.

Donald Bangs is in the groove. The American Sign Language instructor’s hands conduct a symphony and his fingers move in perfect coordination, while his face mimics the emotions. Students surrounding him return blank stares. He scampers to a student’s desk, snatches his water bottle and pours the contents onto the desk. The student yelps as he frantically avoids getting soaked. The classmates burst out laughing. They understand and connect without Bangs saying a word.

“Humor helps students relax and become open to learning ASL,” Bangs said. “For some students, learning a new language can be stressful. Humor holds students attention and keeps them on their toes. Humor helps the instructor make sure students understand the lesson,” The former department chair has been instrumental in expanding ASL programs, training new staff, and partnering with other departments.

The ASL Department at SRJC is one of the largest in the Bay Area. It offers classes in varying levels of ASL, deaf culture and interpreter education. ASL appeals to students who are more comfortable with physical movement than public speaking or writing.

The department serves more than 1,000 students each year with a unique curriculum based on immersion, expression and a little comedy. Signing is the only form of communication in the classroom and chairs are arranged in a half-circle so everyone can be seen. It is a uniquely communal learning experience where students help each other. There is no lecturing, just a free-flowing dialogue. Signing requires focused attention to communicate, a courtesy often forgotten in spoken language.

SRJC student Judith Lerner explains, “My teacher told us he would teach us how to see. It’s a very expressive language, you communicate with emotions.” She is taking a beginning ASL class with her son, one of many high school students fulfilling language credit requirements. This opportunity for transferable credit has encouraged high school students to study ASL.

The campus ASL Club hosts social events and other opportunities for students to practice signing. Gatherings like an annual Halloween party, picnics, pizza nights and cookouts attract hundreds of students.

SRJC instructor Lili Crosby Wilding has taught ASL for nine years. “I love seeing ‘light bulbs’ go on when my students finally grasp a concept.” Wilding is third-generation deaf and a strong advocate for Audism Free America, (a deaf rights group) and equal treatment of the deaf community.

Audism is institutional or overt discrimination against deaf people. Wilding is also a taking a full load this semester and has noticed these inequalities from the perspective of a deaf student. “The interpreting department on campus is hiring signers who are not qualified and filling requests for interpreters with ‘warm bodies.’ That is a denial of equal access,” Wilding said. Many deaf students still lack the fundamental rights and access to services that the hearing community takes for granted.

Nearly 4 in 1,000 people in the U.S. are functionally deaf. SRJC student John G. decided to take ASL classes after working at Blockbuster with deaf co-workers. “I decided to expand, there are a lot of deaf people out there. It’s a fun class.”

“The deaf community view themselves as part of a community who is proud to be deaf,” Wilding said. This growing SRJC minority has made an impact by educating and collaborating with the larger school population. In March, the ASL Club and the Theater Department put on an interpreted performance of “The Miracle Worker.”

Teaching students ASL and raising awareness of discrimination is vital to the keeping the community thriving. Bangs says, “The goal of an ASL community is to make our communities ‘deaf friendly.’ This means that deaf people can communicate easier with people at work, home, play and many other places. Also, an ASL community helps hearing people develop their skills and fluency in a beautifully visual and gestural language.”

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