There are diverse reasons for learning a sign language, including taking courses for personal use versus taking courses for formal academic credit. Those learning a sign language for personal reasons include people who interact with deaf people; they may have a deaf child or work in a deaf-hearing environment. These personal users require different curriculums and frequently have different goals in terms of their final levels of proficiency. Learning a sign language as a foreign, or world, language tends to follow the long-established standards for any foreign language learner. For sign languages, multiple projects are ongoing to create more effective curriculums to achieve the “5Cs” listed within the US accrediting standards and the “Can Dos” in the European standards. There is the need for additional research in sign language curriculum development as well as pedagogy for the most effective transmission of sign language skills and their associated cultural components. Future efforts to develop curriculum for personal users as well as those in formal academic settings will provide highly skilled sign language instructors as well as interpreters .
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