American Sign Language as foreign language requirement

[Anonymous]

Has anyone's child taken ASL for their high school's foreign language requirement? It is available at the high school my daughter will attend next year and I know in our district it counts towards their language requirement but I'm not sure whether any/many colleges with their own language requirement will also accept it? I know UVA does but do others? She has difficulty with the language she is currently studying so we are hoping to try something new, but also want to make sure in the end it will be to her benefit and she won't have to go back later (like in college) and take a foreign language that she struggles at.i

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone's child taken ASL for their high school's foreign language requirement? It is available at the high school my daughter will attend next year and I know in our district it counts towards their language requirement but I'm not sure whether any/many colleges with their own language requirement will also accept it? I know UVA does but do others? She has difficulty with the language she is currently studying so we are hoping to try something new, but also want to make sure in the end it will be to her benefit and she won't have to go back later (like in college) and take a foreign language that she struggles at.i

If you are seriously thinking of UVA, check the language requirements thoroughly. My DC is a second year student there now. He took one year of Latin and at least two middle school years and two high school years of Spanish AP. He was also fluent in ASL. He did not take the AP exams or try to place because he had heard horror stories and was focused on the SAT II subject matter tests in the sciences. UVA's general rule is four semesters (2 years) of foreign language. So he had to decide whether to continue with Spanish or try something else (UVA offers everything even Urdu). He chose German so is in his first semester of German. There are a few programs, such as poly-sci honors, which will allow you to waive those two years of foreign language but they are rare. It's also very difficult to get excused for those two years of foreign language based upon a disability. Basically, you have to try the class and demonstrate that you will fail all four semesters. Only then is it waived. My DC checked carefully with friends who had taken the AP test in Spanish, the ASL test and SAT II subject matter tests in foreign languages others and felt there was no way he would place well notwithstanding the years of Spanish he had taken. I think that assessment was correct. If you really don't want your DD to take foreign language i would avoid UVA and any other college that has a standing foreign language requirement (It was one year in my college - I hated it!). Or, learn everything you can about the AP YSL tests to find out if she really can get credit if she focuses hard in high school. Also some college will pass you for say, Spanish I, but will make you take Spanish II, III and IV depending upon tests results.

[Anonymous]

The ASL teachers at W-L are known to be quite good.

Some of the other language teachers, not so much.

[Anonymous]

It is a good question as I think some colleges and universities don’t weight it as heavily.

I am deaf and use ASL but I don’t think it is a perfect substitute for learning a foreign language. The deaf community is a fascinating culture but the language itself is a dialect with limited utility and doesn’t derive from a written root language and therefore doesn’t achieve the same thing as a Romance language or similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is a good question as I think some colleges and universities don’t weight it as heavily.

I am deaf and use ASL but I don’t think it is a perfect substitute for learning a foreign language. The deaf community is a fascinating culture but the language itself is a dialect with limited utility and doesn’t derive from a written root language and therefore doesn’t achieve the same thing as a Romance language or similar.

Thank you for your thoughtful response. I agree it doesn't seem to be a similar kind of learning process as a traditional foreign language. I only just learned that some schools will consider it a substitute but now am interested in finding out more since my daughter has a learning disorder that makes learning foreign language very difficult.

I agree with the OP that maybe it's just easiest to avoid a school like UVA that has a foreign language requirement (although as I discovered they do offer ASL at UVA and allow it to count for that requirement).

We are in the zone for W-L where it is offered, which is why I'm even considering it. She is in Spanish II now as an 8th grader and I thought she could do 2 years of ASL to complete that requirement, or 3 if she really enjoyed it. Otherwise we will have her go through one more year of Spanish in 9th grade and call it quits after level III so she can focus on her strengths.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone's child taken ASL for their high school's foreign language requirement? It is available at the high school my daughter will attend next year and I know in our district it counts towards their language requirement but I'm not sure whether any/many colleges with their own language requirement will also accept it? I know UVA does but do others? She has difficulty with the language she is currently studying so we are hoping to try something new, but also want to make sure in the end it will be to her benefit and she won't have to go back later (like in college) and take a foreign language that she struggles at.i

If you are seriously thinking of UVA, check the language requirements thoroughly. My DC is a second year student there now. He took one year of Latin and at least two middle school years and two high school years of Spanish AP. He was also fluent in ASL. He did not take the AP exams or try to place because he had heard horror stories and was focused on the SAT II subject matter tests in the sciences. UVA's general rule is four semesters (2 years) of foreign language. So he had to decide whether to continue with Spanish or try something else (UVA offers everything even Urdu). He chose German so is in his first semester of German. There are a few programs, such as poly-sci honors, which will allow you to waive those two years of foreign language but they are rare. It's also very difficult to get excused for those two years of foreign language based upon a disability. Basically, you have to try the class and demonstrate that you will fail all four semesters. Only then is it waived. My DC checked carefully with friends who had taken the AP test in Spanish, the ASL test and SAT II subject matter tests in foreign languages others and felt there was no way he would place well notwithstanding the years of Spanish he had taken. I think that assessment was correct. If you really don't want your DD to take foreign language i would avoid UVA and any other college that has a standing foreign language requirement (It was one year in my college - I hated it!). Or, learn everything you can about the AP YSL tests to find out if she really can get credit if she focuses hard in high school. Also some college will pass you for say, Spanish I, but will make you take Spanish II, III and IV depending upon tests results.

Please explain. The UVA requirement is just for Arts & Sciences and you are done if you take the AP exam before getting there. You only needed a 3 on the AP French exam to be done. Sounds like your DS switched around too much to get too far in any language.

http://college.as.virginia.edu/fl-placement-index

[Anonymous]

DD took three years of ASL in high school and was able to get into lots of good colleges. Many colleges will accept ASL now, but you should check first because you don't want their application to automatically go in the rejection pile if they won't accept it. I agree it's also good to find out what the language requirements for a school are once you get in. My DD also had a language processing issue that made learning a foreign language extra difficult which is why she moved to ASL after taking and struggling through foreign language in middle school.

[Anonymous]

My language challenged dd took Latin. It is still a language with a lot of grammar and vocab to learn, but there is also a lot of history, which she finds easy.

[Anonymous]

If the child's learning issue is auditory processing (making spoken languages tougher), the safer choice is Latin in terms of college credit. Note that colleges that offer ASL may not accept it for a foreign language requirement. Another option -- take one language in high school and study ASL during the summer. Galludette University let's you study immersion ASL summer courses, and that's probably a better place to learn it than any other high school or college in the world. My DC has done this the past three summers and still had time to do other things for at least half his break.

[Anonymous]

This will not be the best advice if your child is shooting for UVA, but for colleges that are not as competitive: Unless something has changed recently in FCPS, you can take foreign language Pass-Fail for the Standard Diploma. And you only need two years. Don't let FL be the problem re: college admission or college completion. When college is approaching research majors w/out a FL requirement (beware of the typical BA in Arts & Sciences) Also know that most Va public colleges (and a few other states) make avoiding FL particularly hard. Look out-of-state if necessary to avoid. Some states force the student to declare a disability to avoid FL.

[Anonymous]

My kid took ASL, so I've called a lot of college

My kid is, to be blunt, not performing at a level where we would consider UVA, so I didn't call schools of that caliber. I did call VCU and most of the MD instate options (because we're in MD) and they all said no problem.

Private schools were less consistent. One school that didn't accept it was Hood, in Frederick.

One thing to consider is whether the school says they have a "Foreign Language" requirement or a "World Language" requirement. ASL is not foreign, it's American. A kid taking Navaho, for example, would face the same problem. If a school says they have a world language requirement, then ASL should be fine. I'd still ask though.

The other thing to note is that some schools specify a "modern" world or a "modern" foreign. These schools don't let Latin/Ancient Greek/Biblical Hebrew etc . . . count. (Not that you asked, just an interesting fact). Again, check though!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the child's learning issue is auditory processing (making spoken languages tougher), the safer choice is Latin in terms of college credit. Note that colleges that offer ASL may not accept it for a foreign language requirement. Another option -- take one language in high school and study ASL during the summer. Galludette University let's you study immersion ASL summer courses, and that's probably a better place to learn it than any other high school or college in the world. My DC has done this the past three summers and still had time to do other things for at least half his break.

There are more schools that don't take Latin than schools that don't take ASL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the child's learning issue is auditory processing (making spoken languages tougher), the safer choice is Latin in terms of college credit. Note that colleges that offer ASL may not accept it for a foreign language requirement. Another option -- take one language in high school and study ASL during the summer. Galludette University let's you study immersion ASL summer courses, and that's probably a better place to learn it than any other high school or college in the world. My DC has done this the past three summers and still had time to do other things for at least half his break.

There are more schools that don't take Latin than schools that don't take ASL.

What schools don't take a Latin? Every single school we have looked at does, and that's at least 20 schools, many of which are popular among DC area students.