Use of American Sign Language and English within the Boise State ASL Club

This poster focuses on how ASL club members switch between spoken English and ASL, while also taking into account the social, cultural and contextual factors that may influence language choices. The language practices found within a university American Sign Language club can offer an extensive amount of information regarding patterns of code-switching between English and ASL. Understanding how these communities utilize and balance multiple languages in social contexts is crucial, yet there is a significant lack of exploration of this topic within the ASL space. Through ethnographic observation, participation and interviews, this research analyzes the linguistic choices of members and the implications for the community as a whole. My findings indicate that language switching is dependent on many factors, such as group size, familiarity of the member with ASL and the social setting where an event takes place. These results highlight the importance of language clubs, especially to non-fluent members, as a way of connecting, learning and understanding different communities or cultures.