Graduation Year
Spring 2014
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Department
Anthropology
Reader 1
Seo Young Park
Reader 2
Claudia Strauss
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2014 Anya Leyhe
Abstract
Historically, American Sign Language (an aspect of Deaf culture) has been rendered invisible in mainstream hearing society. Today, ASL’s popularity is evidenced in an ethnolinguistic renaissance; more second language learners pursue an interest in ASL than ever before. Nonetheless, Deaf and hearing people alike express concern about ASL’s place in hearing culture. This qualitative study engages ethnographic methods of participant observation and semi-structured interviewing as well as popular media analysis to understand language ideologies (ideas and objectives concerning roles of language in society) hearing and Deaf Signers hold about motivations and practices of other hearing Signers. Although most hearing ASLers identify as apolitical students genuinely seeking to build bridges between disparate communities, I argue that ASLers are most concerned with hearing Signers’ colonization of the language through commoditization and cultural appropriation.
Recommended Citation
Leyhe, Anya A., "An Ethnographic Inquiry: Contemporary Language Ideologies of American Sign Language" (2014). Scripps Senior Theses. 473.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/473
