Self-paced
Professor Beckstein: Support American Sign Language is the native language of many North Americans. ██████████ ██ ██ ███ █ ███████ █████████ ███ ███ ████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ████████ ███
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Speaker 1 Summary
Beckstein concludes that students shouldn’t be allowed to satisfy the foreign language requirement by learning ASL. This is because he believes ASL isn’t a foreign language, based on the fact that it’s the native language of many people in North America.
Speaker 2 Summary
Sedley undermines Beckstein’s argument by pointing out that Beckstein’s logic would commit him to arguing that French and Spanish shouldn’t satisfy the foreign language requirement, because many North Americans speak these languages natively. The point is Beckstein’s assumption for what’s required to be considered a foreign language is absurd.
19.
Their statements commit Professors Beckstein ███ ██████ ██ ███████████ █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
whether American Sign ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ █ ███████████ ██████ ██ █████ █████████
Sedley has no opinion. He doesn’t say anything suggesting an opinion about whether ASL is native to a lot of North Americans.
b
whether any North ████████ █████ ██████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██ ███ ███ ██████ ████████
Sedley doesn’t have an opinion. He doesn’t comment on whether studying one’s own native language should satisfy the foreign language requirement. (Beckstein also doesn’t have an opinion, but it’s easier to see that Sedley doesn’t.)
c
whether the university █████ ██ ██████ █ ███████ ████████ ███████████
Neither speaker has an opinion. They don’t comment on whether universities should keep this requirement.
d
whether any other ████████████ ██ █████ ███████ ██████ █████ ████████ ██ ███████ █ ███████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ████████ ████████ ████ ████████
Neither speaker has an opinion. They don’t comment on the requirements of other universities besides the university that Beckstein refers to.
e
whether the fact ████ █ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ████ █████ █████████ █████████ ███████████ ███ ███ ██ ███████ ███ ████████████ ███████ ████████ ███████████
This is a point of disagreement. Beckstein assumes that if a language is native to many North Americans, it shouldn’t fulfill the requirement. Sedley disagrees. He says French/Spanish are native to many, but that we shouldn’t disqualify these from satisfying the requirement.