when did asl gain recognition as a language what took so long
American Sign Language Up to the 1950s, the predominant method in deaf education was oralism â€“ acquiring oral language comprehension and production.[19] Linguists did not consider sign language to be true "language", but rather something inferior.[19] Recognition of the legitimacy of ASL was achieved by William Stokoe, a linguist who arrived at Gallaudet University in 1955 when this was still the dominant assumption.[19] Aided by the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Stokoe argued for manualism, the use of sign language in deaf education.[19][20] Stokoe noted that sign language shares the important features that oral languages have as a means of communication, and even devised a transcription system for ASL.[19] In doing so, Stokoe revolutionized both deaf education and linguistics.[19] In the 1960s, ASL was sometimes referred to as "Ameslan", but this term is now considered obsolete.[21]
Multilingualism Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, the so-called first language (L1). The first language (sometimes also referred to as the mother tongue) is acquired without formal education, by mechanisms heavily disputed. Children acquiring two languages in this way are called simultaneous bilinguals. Even in the case of simultaneous bilinguals, one language usually dominates the other. People who know more than one language have been reported to be more adept at language learning compared to monolinguals.[5] Additionally, bilinguals often have important economic advantages over monolingual individuals as bilingual people are able to carry out duties that monolinguals cannot, such as interacting with customers who only speak a minority language.