A common question from prospective ASL students is:
"How long does it take to become fluent ASL?"
Deaf kids growing up in Deaf households learn become "fluent" in a few years as they grow up -- having vocabulary that matches their surroundings and life experiences.
Motivated students can learn how to communicate "visually / gesturally"
about basic topics within a few weeks. Does that mean they are fluent or "know"
ASL? Certainly not. It just means they have learned how to string together a limited amount of ASL vocabulary and combine it with a lot of fingerspelling, mouthing of words, mime, pointing, and gesturing.
I sometimes take groups of students and Deaf people on "immersion excursions"
(trips) to Disneyland or similar attractions. A mix of about 8 Hearing and 4
Deaf works well. Typically the hearing students have had about 30 hours of ASL
instruction, but some (believe it or not) have had only around "six hours"
before getting on that van! Immersion excursions can be amazingly effective
language learning if done right. For example, back when I taught colleges
classes in Utah the trip to Disneyland took about 14 hours, (including rest
stops). By the time we got to Anaheim the newbies were communicating excitedly
about a variety of fun topics and enjoying themselves. Were they using ASL? No
but they were communicating in visually accessible ways and they were learning ASL at an amazing rate! By the time we returned back home three days later most of the (Hearing / ASL learning) participants had learned as much in three days as would typically be learned in 3 to 4 month long college ASL course.
Let's face it though, learning a language, ANY language to a level that
can be considered "fluent" takes time. To become truly fluent in ASL is going to take years.
A person can memorize a book of ASL vocabulary within around 60 to 90 hours of
concentrated study and practice with feedback from a skilled tutor. Most
students can then string those signs together using subject, verb, object word
order and have a "passable" conversation with a Deaf person. Such conversations
tend to succeed because the Deaf conversation partner is bilingual and
can understand (with some mental work) the Hearing person's stringing together
of ASL signs. Such students will eventually learn ASL if keep studying and
continue having conversations with skilled signers. How long will that take? It
just depends on how much exposure and use the student is managing to experience.
There are those who pooh-pooh the idea of it being possible to become fluent (enough to satisfy everyday life needs) in American Sign Language (ASL) in less than five years.
It makes little sense to claim a length of time that it will require to become
fluent in a language unless you also include information regarding time engaged
in active listening (via the eyes) to and usage of the language.
I personally know a young woman who achieved an impressive level of ASL fluency
in one year and within two years she could effectively engage in ASL to English
interpretation of a wide variety of topics in non-complex situations. I
personally watched it happen.
How?
She fell in love with and married a Deaf ASL teacher. (No, not me -- a friend
of mine.)
Plus she "studied her brains out"* (forgive the highly technical terms I'm using here, thanks) and practiced her heart out.
That Deaf ASL teacher's close friends and social group were literally other Deaf
ASL teachers, ASL interpreters, and other native or near-native-level signers.
Try spending four hours every Friday night playing Settlers of Catan with a
tableful of Deaf ASL instructors (and go home with one of them and keep signing)
for a year and see what it does for your signing skills.
I have personally observed dozens of people become relatively competent
interpreters (for non-technical subjects) within 2 years.
How?
Such individuals participated in the ASL program of the LDS Church starting with
a 2-month-long language (and culture) "boot-camp" at the Missionary Training
Center in Provo, Utah. That program is 24/7 of language learning and engagement for 8 weeks followed by going out in the world to meet and interact with (proselytize) sometimes as many as a thousand (that number is not hyperbole) different Deaf individuals over the next 22 months.
None of the above is any sort of "short-cut."
I'm simply pointing out that it is *not* about the number of "years." It is
about the number of "hours." To reach (near-native) fluency in ASL an
ASL-as-a-second-language learner will need to invest somewhere near the amount
of 10,000 hours. It is about the hours -- not how many years to which you pack
into or stretch out those 10,000 hours.
For example, lets do the math regarding the above "2-year plan."
356 (days in a year) x 2 (years) x 15 (hours a day immersed in the language) =
10,950 (hours of immersion including exposure to literally hundreds of different
native language models).
Since some people may still not be convinced, allow me to share another example of which I have first-hand experience watching someone achieve a really solid level of signing skill within a comparatively short period of time:
My assistant.
She took a class from me at my day job a couple of years ago and I offered her an internship at the Lifeprint (ASL University) studio.
We invested many hours working together over the next year wherein her desk literally adjoined mine and we communicated near constantly as we built web pages, clipped videos, designed curriculum, and developed ASL resources while various Deaf faculty would often stop by for a chat.
During her part time work here at the studio she had frequent exposure to Bee
(my wonderful wife) and I ... ahem ... "communicating politely" (cough)
with each other.
Understand that my assistant is amazingly dedicated to learning and growing and
did quite a bit of external study.
How "fluent" did she become within a couple years? Let's just say that I recall
one time during lunch at the "Deaf table" I observed her comprehend native-level
(non-technical) conversations as well as or better than some of the (albeit
Hearing) "ASL teachers" sitting at the same table. I smiled when one of the
(Hearing) ASL teachers asked me what another (Deaf) person at the table had
signed -- and before I could respond my young assistant responded with the
correct explanation.
During her lunch-break it was common for her to watch Deaf news programs
(without captions) and understand in the 95% to 99% range (I know because I
frequently spot quizzed her regarding what was on the screen) on first pass
through for most topics with only occasional replay to catch lexicalized
fingerspelling, regional signs, or specialized terms (which she then asked me
about and then promptly added them to her repertoire*).
[Update: She graduated, got a job in a town too far away. My next intern also
become very fluent in a similar time-frame and went on to interpret full-time.]
My point is that I have no doubt some people can achieve conversational fluency
(covering a decent variety of topics) in ASL in less than two years. It can be
done. Aside from marrying a Deaf person, going on a 24/7 two-year proselytizing mission (after an 8-week ASL boot-camp), or becoming "Dr. Bill's executive assistant" -- ask yourself:
"In order to become fluent in this language -- where, when, and how am I going
to get in my 10,000 hours?"
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*A "repertoire" is a stock (or set) of skills or types of behavior that a person has or can use.
An ASL teacher comments: I?m always surprised by those people who seem to think that learning ASL would be much easier than learning any other foreign language.
Response from Bill Vicars:
For any specific language learner some languages will be significantly easier to learn than others due to language families, shared vocabulary, and structural similarities.
It is a fact that some languages are easier to learn than others.
According to the Foreign Service Institute (based on decades of observation) languages can generally be divided five categories of difficulty. In the following list, proficiency is
considered to be if you can participate effectively in formal and informal conversations on practical, social, and professional topics. You have a strong command of grammar and rarely struggle to finish sentences due to missing vocabulary. (While you may still have a slight accent or commit minor imperfections, your errors never interfere with a native speaker's understanding).
Foreign Service Institute Language Difficulty Levels:
Category I ? Languages that usually require around 24-30 weeks or 600-750 class hours. This group contains languages like French, Spanish, Romanian and Dutch.
Category II - German - Language that requires around 30 weeks in a category of its own.
Category III ? Languages that usually require around 36 weeks or 900 hours of instruction to reach S-3/R-3.
These languages are slightly more difficult, and this group includes Indonesian and Swahili.
Category IV ? Students usually need around 44 weeks or 1100 class hours to reach S-3/R-3. This is the largest group and contains a wide variety of languages, including Russian, Hindi, Tamil, Thai, Vietnamese, Turkish, Finnish and many more. They are described as ?hard languages?.
Category V ? It usually takes 88 weeks or 2200 hours to reach S-3/R-3 proficiency in these languages. This small group of ?super-hard languages? includes Chinese (Mandarin), Cantonese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic.
(source: https://www.fsi-language-courses.org/blog/fsi-language-difficulty/ )
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In my own observations it takes four
years of Deaf Studies (college semester) coursework (with a heavy emphasis on ASL and all but the introductory general ed course taught in ASL) and another two years of interpreter training courses plus considerable practice to pass a basic interpreter certification test. Figure 10 courses per program at around 4 units each.
Math: 40 units x 2 programs = 80 semester units
Figure an hour and a half of classroom (or "guided") instruction per unit and that puts a student in the 1,200 hours of study range -- plus an equal number of practice hours. So we are looking at 2,400 hours to become an interpreter. However, much of that study is "not" actual learning of ASL -- much of it is wasted. Perhaps as much as half is fluff.
Regardless, half of 2,400 hours is 1,200 hours which puts ASL solidly in Category IV. Harder than most
languages, easier than a few.
An issue though is the "illusion" of proficiency. Many basic signers think they are more proficient (in ASL) than they really are because Deaf conversation partners tend to code-switch, lipread, rely on context, and otherwise pick up the slack.
The plot thickens when we consider that some languages likely have vastly differing rates of learning between starting and proficiency. For example, it might be relatively easy to learn 60% of a target language and much harder to learn the remaining 40%. I suspect that may be the case for ASL.
Regarding ASL Program characteristics.*
Fast
Low cost
Good results
(* Pick any two).
------------------------
Since some folks might skip over the deeper meaning of the "pick any two"
comment, I'll point out:
Good, fast programs = expensive
Good, low cost programs = slow
Low cost, fast programs = not good
However I will also suggest that online learning is helping to speed up and
lower the cost of becoming fluent.
The concept of fast, low cost, good -- is sometimes referred to as "the iron triangle."
A fairly common sentiment in the Deaf Community is: "You can become an
interpreter faster if you sign with Deaf friends."
To make decisions regarding the validity of that statement we must ask:
"Faster than what? Faster than who?"
We can likely make the statement valid if we expand it to:
"You can become an interpreter faster than your classmates
if you sign with Deaf friends in addition to your regular
studies (and your classmates do not do any additional signing with Deaf friends
outside of class).
It comes back to "the number of hours" game: A student who gets 60 contact hours
of classroom-based ASL and/or interpreting instruction over a period of four
years is not going to become an interpreter at the end of four years.
A student who gets 60 contact hours of classroom instruction and engages in
thousands of additional hours of "signing with Deaf friends" is indeed likely to
become an interpreter faster (a better word would be "earlier") than their
classmates.
I would, at this point in the conversation, like to mention that there is a
"2 year college" in my area. They offer an AA degree in interpreting. They are
excellent and full of awesome instructors. I love those people and the program.
Thumb up!
However the idea of it being a "two year interpreter preparation program" --
-- Is a lie. It is untrue. It is not "really" a two-year program.
It actually takes one-and-a-half more units (around 60) to complete that
"2-year" program than it does to complete the "4-year" Deaf Studies program (41
units) at my day job.
How it ends up happening is (many of the) students go through this "two year
college" two and a half times!
The first time: They go through two years of ASL training.
The second time: They apply for (and some get into) the IPP and go through
another two years of training.
Then they go through mentoring for ... a while.
The ones that actually end up "interpreting" do so after around five years (not
two). If you want to be a "certified" (!) interpreter -- add another couple
years onto that (particularly since it is now standard to require a bachelor's
degree to sit for the certification test).
Of course there are those who do it faster and slower. I'm just sharing my
general observation based on the last 15 years of my students going through the
local four-year "Deaf Studies" degree to get their bachelors and then using the
local community college as a low-cost form of "graduate school" (wink, wink) to
turn their four year degree into something with which they can actually earn
money.
So, for all of you who want to stick a fork in me for saying it is "possible"
(in my earlier post) to become conversationally fluent in 2 years (and I *did*
provide actual examples) -- I would now like to support the wider consensus that
IRL (in real life) we (those of us in the field) see it taking around six years
to become an interpreter.
Notes: