| Institutions of higher education across the United States are seeing unprecedented enrollments in American Sign Language (ASL) classes. Enrollment in ASL courses grew 165% from 1995 to 1998. (Chronicle of Higher Education , 1999).; Although many of these ASL students are hearing people interested in personal growth, advancing career options, or meeting general education foreign language requirements, there is also a surge of interest in ASL as a first language for deaf students, brought on by the popularity in the bilingual-bicultural movement (Philip & Small, 1980) in Deaf schools across the nation.; In the wake of this ASL popularity is a push to professionalize the field of ASL instruction. While many welcome this rise in ASL popularity, and push for credentials, administrators at institutions of higher education across the United States are being challenged to keep up with the growing demand for qualified ASL teachers. Currently, there are not enough American Sign Language Teacher Preparation Programs (ASLTPPs) to keep up with this demand for qualified ASL teachers. Cagle (personal email, March 27, 2001) indicates that there are only 174 American Sign Language Teacher Association (ASLTA) certified teachers in the United States, while the number of sign language teachers in institutions of higher education is estimated to be well over 990 (Cooper, 1997).; It has become more important than ever that ASLTPPs not only turn out more teachers, but that they are held to the same standards that world languages other than English teacher preparation programs are expected to follow. Little information exists about ASLTPPs. Even less is known about how they measure up to existing national teacher training standards. These data are necessary if we are to satisfy the demand for quality ASL teachers.; The purpose of this study is to analyze data and to provide projections for the future of ASL teacher preparation programs. This study examines national standards for teachers of ASL and world languages other than English in the areas of curricula, administration and teacher educators. The results of this analysis provide an empirical baseline for projecting future directions for these American Sign Language Teacher Preparation Programs. |
