American Sign Language (ASL) is the main language that Deaf or hard of hearing people use to communicate. Though many people know about sign language it goes untaught and unrecognized by the citizens of Illinois. It is not fair that our young students don't get the opportunity to learn ASL. The State of Illinois recognizes ASL as a foreign language and our students should have the opportunity to learn ASL in the Quincy Public School System. look at http://www.ncssfl.org/links/ASL.pdf for the details on ASL being a forgien language.

The idea that ASL is simply a gestural form of English is easily refutable. According to Klima, et al., "ASL is a fully developed language, one of hundreds of naturally occurring signed languages of the world, with a complex grammatical structure" (qtd. in "ASL as a Foreign Language," par. 5). ASL is not related to English, does not resemble English, and should not be considered a form of English (Nakamura, par. 2; Vigoda, par. 14; Vigoda, par. 24-26; Lucas 407; Van Cleve & Crouch 106; Fromkin 16-17; "Culture of American Deaf," 26; Selover 155). The grammatical structure of ASL is different from that of English (Nakamura, par. 2; Vigoda, par. 14; Van Cleve & Crouch 106; Fromkin 16-17), and is actually closer to Japanese (Conover, par. 8; Chapin 4), although "ASL is not the derivative of any oral language" according to Rutherford ("Culture of American Deaf" 25). Vigoda points out that ASL is so different from English that when "translated literally [it] can sound like broken English" (24). Wilcox provides a more detailed look at the structure of ASL and reiterates its uniqueness.