The Daily Bulletin Archive

Andrea O’Connor, lecturer in the Speech-Language Pathology Department, makes a living by giving a voice to the deaf—but she also recognizes the value of temporarily taking away the voice of those who can hear.

Students enrolled in O’Connor’s sections of SLP 101 and SLP 102: Sign Language I and II are often in for a rude awakening during the first week of class.

“I don’t say a word until the second week of the class,” O’Connor said. “Obviously this is met by many blank stares and fidgeting from the students, who assume at the time that I am deaf. This is a humbling experience for students, who must find a way to comprehend what I am signing. By the end of the course, students not only develop the ability to sign, but an amazing appreciation of the deaf culture.”

O’Connor, who also works for the Niagara County Health Department’s Division of Children with Special Needs, teaches her students American Sign Language (ASL), the third-most-used language in the United States.

Regarded as the natural language of the deaf community, ASL traces its origins to nineteenth-century New England, when Laurent Clerc, a deaf Frenchman, and Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, a Protestant minister from Connecticut, established the first school for the deaf in Hartford in 1817—the American Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb (now the American School for the Deaf). The residential school’s dormitory life fostered the creation of ASL as students mixed Old French Sign Language, which was taught in the classroom, with the indigenous language already being used by deaf people in America.

As O’Connor’s students discover the history of ASL, the common misconceptions of sign language are slowly eliminated. For example, students learn there is no one universal sign language used by deaf people around the world, and that ASL is not a manual code for English but rather is its own unique language.

“ASL has its own distinct grammatical structure,” O’Connor said. “Facial expression is actually one of ASL’s main grammatical features.”

At Buffalo State, the stark differences between English and ASL qualify SLP 101 and SLP 102 as courses that fulfill students’ foreign-language requirement. O’Connor teaches at least one section of American Sign Language I and II each semester, with demand continuing to grow. O’Connor credits Constance Dean Qualls, chair and professor of Speech-Language Pathology, for supporting Buffalo State’s American Sign Language courses. SLP 101 and 102 will also be offered during Summer Sessions A and B respectively.

“There are a wide range of students taking these courses,” O’Connor said. “Speech-language pathology majors have great interest, but the courses also feature many students from the School of Education, especially special education majors.”

While students enrolled in American Sign Language I and II must learn proper verb tenses and phrases as in any other foreign-language class, there is one classroom skill that differs from Spanish, French, or German courses.

“It can be difficult for students to take notes,” O’Connor said. “In traditional classes, students’ eyes can go back and forth between the instructor and their notebook. In this setting, students must keep their eyes on me at all times or else they may miss something.

“This is really a class unlike any other,” O’Connor added. “Throughout the semester, students build trust and congeniality with one another as they learn together through conversation and events, such as a silent dinner. It is truly an enlightening course for students.”