| Dr. William C. Stokoe, Jr., was the
chairman of the English Department at Gallaudet University. He saw the way deaf
people communicated and was extremely{{U}} (21) {{/U}}. He was a hearing
person, and signs of the deaf were totally new to him. Dr. Stokoe decided to propose a study of sign language. Many other teachers were not interested, and thought Dr. Stokoe was{{U}} (22) {{/U}}to think about studying sign language. Even deaf teachers were not very interested in the project. However, Dr. Stokoe did not give up.{{U}} (23) {{/U}}, he started the Linguistics Research Program in'1957. Stokoe and his two deaf assistants, worked{{U}} (24) {{/U}}this project during the summer and after school. The three{{U}} (25) {{/U}}made films of deaf people signing. The deaf people in the films did not understand{{U}} (26) {{/U}}the research was about and were just trying to be nice to Dr. Stokoe. Many people thought the whole project was silly, but{{U}} (27) {{/U}}agreed with Dr. Stokoe in order to please him. Stokoe and his{{U}} (28) {{/U}}studied the films of signing. They{{U}} (29) {{/U}}the films and tried to see patterns in the signs. The results of the research were{{U}} (30) {{/U}}: the signs used by all of the signers{{U}} (31) {{/U}}certain linguistic rules. Dr. Stokoe was the first linguist to test American Sign Language{{U}} (32) {{/U}}a real language. He published the{{U}} (33) {{/U}}in 1960,but not many people paid attention to the study. Dr. Stokoe was still{{U}} (34) {{/U}}—he was the only linguist who{{U}} (35) {{/U}}that sign language was more than gestures. He knew it was a language of its own and not just another form of English. |