Dr.William C.Stokoe,Jr.,was the chairman of the English Department at Gallaudet
University. He saw the way deaf people communicated and was extremely1.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 was2to think about studying sign language. Even deaf teachers were not very interested in the project. However, Dr. Stokoe did not give up.3, he started the Linguistics Research Program in 1957. Stokoe and his two deaf assistants worked4this project during the summer and after school. The three5made films of deaf people signing. The deaf people in the films did not understand6the research was about and were just trying to be nice to Dr. Stokoe. Many people thought the whole project was silly, but7agreed with Dr. Stokoe in order to please him.
Stokoe and his8studied the films of signing. They9the films and tried to see patterns in the signs. The results of the research were10: the signs used by all of the signers11certain linguistic rules.
Dr. Stokoe was the first linguist to test American Sign Language12a real language.He published the13in 1960, but not many people paid attention to the study. Dr. Stokoe was still14——he was the only linguist who15that sign language was more than gestures. He knew it was a language of its own and not just another form. of English.