By Emily Andersen
American Sign Language may be one of the most popular foreign languages taught at BYU, but don''t try to get a degree in it.
The school doesn''t offer an ASL major.
Still, students have flocked to ASL classes.
About 700 students take an ASL course each semester, making it the second-largest foreign language program at BYU, said Lynn Henrichsen, chair of the Linguistics Department.
The ASL program was established in 1973, and it has struggled since then to gain acceptance as a credible language.
The ASL program has always struggled to offer classes for some type of credit, Henrichsen said.
It wasn''t until about eight years ago that ASL was offered as an option to satisfy the mathematics/foreign language requirement for General Education, said Jack Rose, the coordinator of the ASL program.
But even that didn''t come easy, Rose said.
Linguistics professor John Robertson agreed. he said getting ASL to count for GE requirements was a major accomplishment.
ASL teachers, students and members of the Linguistics Department administration are now pushing for an ASL minor.
'There is a need for a teaching minor at least,' Henrichsen said.
Robertson and Rose agree that an ASL minor still needs to be added to the Linguistics Department, because there is a demand for it.
'It would be wonderful,' Robertson said. 'ASL needs to be recognized for what it is. It is a legitimate language with millions of speakers across the nation.'
There have been several attempts in the past to add an ASL minor, but they have been unsuccessful, Henrichsen said.
A proposal to add the option of an ASL minor was offered in 1998, but was rejected due to lack of funds, Henrichsen said.
Robertson helped write the proposal.
'We felt like the demand was so great and there were so many high schools that have ASL as a foreign language option that we needed to add a methodology class to create an ASL minor,' Robertson said.
Robertson said that if a minor was offered, those who are studying to be teachers could take the ASL courses and meet the demand for ASL teachers in high schools and in other institutions where ASL is used.
Robertson said he thinks the university rejected the proposal because adding an ASL minor would result in having too many minors in the Linguistics Department. Robertson also said a new faculty member would have to be added to create a minor, which the university felt was inappropriate.
Henrichsen said they have also thought of having a joint program with Utah Valley State College, but nothing has been decided.
ASL courses are offered through the Department of Evening Classes and are taught by part-time faculty members, Henrichsen said.