whether the fact that a language is the native language of many North Americans justifies prohibiting its use to fulfill the university's foreign language requirement whether any other universities in North America permit their students to fulfill a foreign language requirement by learning American Sign Language whether American Sign Language is the native language of a significant number of North Americans whether any North American whose native language is not English should be allowed to fulfill the university's foreign language requirement by studying his or her own native language
Professor Beckstein: American Sign Language is the native language of many North Americans. Ttherefore, it is not a foreign language, and for that reason alone, no student should be permitted to satisfy the university' s foreign language requirement by learning it. Professor Sedley: According to your argument, students should not be allowed to satisfy the university' s foreign language requirement by learning French or Spanish either, since they too are the native languages of many North Americans. Yet many students currently satisfy the requirement by studying French or Spanish, and it would be ridiculous to begin prohibiting them from doing so.
Their statements commit Professors Beckstein and Sedley to disagreeing about which one of the following?