Sage Kiernan-Sherrow | News Editor
Western has become the first establishment to offer a nationwide American Sign Language assessment service in the western United States after the Regional Resource Center on Deafness Director, Chad Ludwig, decided to restore an updated model of an old program. Officially titled the Signed Language Proficiency Interview, it “assesses a person’s skills in using a natural sign language for communication (function) and provides an analysis of a person’s sign language vocabulary, production, fluency, grammar, and comprehension skills (form),” according to the RRCD website.
A national organization in North Carolina that runs a similar assessment has become overwhelmed with the increasing demand for services.
“That’s where we come into the picture,” said Ludwig.
Discounted for Western students, the $160 basic assessment is essentially a 20-minute interview formatted as a casual conversation addressing three main topic areas: work or school, family and leisure activities or hobbies.
“It’s how you express yourself in ASL that helps our raters determine the level of fluency … our interviewer’s goal is to illicit the most fluency that they can from you,” stated Ludwig.
After the interview concludes, the data is sent to two separate evaluators who then score the results before sending it back to the ASL coordinator. If there is a match, then the score becomes official; if not, then the evaluators either deliberate or it goes to a third evaluator.
The assessment might appeal to a variety of individuals from state employees — who can gain differentials for proven competency in another language — to high school and college students interested in taking the assessment to test into a higher class.
Following the implementation of the program on Jan. 7, there have already been a myriad of questions, inquiries and requests, according to Ludwig, who also encourages students to visit the website or email rsla@wou.edu for more details.
Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu
Photos courtesy of the Division of Deaf Studies and Professional Studies at Western
