考研英语阅读例题Colleges See 16 Increase in Study of Sign Language.docVIP

Colleges See 16% Increase in Study of Sign Language 美国手语学习热增16% The New York Times December 8, 2010 While the number of college students studying Spanish, French and German increased only modestly from 2006 to 2009, enrollment in American Sign Language — the fourth most-popular language — surged more than 16 percent, according to a new report from the Modern Language Association. Sign-language professors suggested various reasons for the rise. They said it reflected the growing acceptance of American Sign Language to meet college foreign-language requirements, and its usefulness as an employment credential — not only for interpreters, but also for cognitive psychologists, educators, nurses and even scuba divers. With the deep budget cuts of the recession, some universities have cut back their language programs. Even so, enrollment in foreign-language classes grew 6.6 percent from 2006 to 2009 — compared with 12.9 percent from 2002 to 2006 — according to the report, “Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in United States Institutions of Higher Education, Fall 2009.” “This is a vulnerable time for language study,” said Rosemary Feal, executive director of the Modern Language Association. “But student interest remains strong.” A few languages with clear geopolitical importance had larger increases than American Sign Language: Arabic, the fastest growing, was up 46 percent, Korean 19 percent and Chinese 18 percent. After long debate about whether American Sign Language is a real language — and whether it qualifies as a foreign language — a few universities now offer a major or minor in it, and many more accept sign language for their foreign-language requirement. Many colleges have long waiting lists of students trying to get into introductory A.S.L. classes, a substantial share of them turning to sign language because of their previous difficulties learning European languages. Many students say their interest in sign language is more about the allure of communic