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AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE 1, PART 1

Price: $125 | Credits: One Semester | Dept: Languages | Course ID# 254-1

This course is the first semester of American Sign Language (ASL) 1. This is an introductory course designed for students with little or no previous study of ASL.  This course teaches basic conversation, grammar, and vocabulary.  The focus is on expressive and receptive American Sign Language, fingerspelling,  and the culture of the Deaf community.  Each unit will cover vocabulary related to a specific theme (friends and family, leisure activities, school or work, etc) and grammar concepts appropriate to level 1.  As students progress through each unit, they will build upon previously learned material and be given opportunities to strengthen their use of their expressive and receptive language skills. ASL 1 is approved by the University of California A-G as a language other than English (category E).

Upon completion of this course, the student is awarded 5 credits. Each credit corresponds to 15 hours of study. Of course, some students work more quickly than others, and some can devote more hours to study, so some students are able to complete the course in an accelerated rate.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

In this module, students gain a comprehension of the following:

  • The manual alphabet and signs that will allow them to sign and understand greetings, introductions, and some basic information about themselves.
  • Learn personal and possessive pronouns and become familiar with the use of space.
  • Learn about facial expressions and body language and how they fit into ASL.
  • Learn signs for being polite.
  • Cardinal numbers 1-100.
  • How to ask and answer Yes/No and Wh- questions, and how to show understanding.
  • Learn about verb pairs and how to incorporate them into a request or polite command.
  • Learn the Topic-Comment structure and use it to establish the subject (or topic) of a statement.
  • Instrument classifiers will be introduced, as well as, the structure for requests and commands.
  • Learn about noun-verb pairs, in which the motion in a sign differentiates the noun from the verb.
  • Culturally appropriate (and inappropriate) ways of getting attention in the Deaf community.
  • Learn to use “signer’s perspective” when explaining or describing.
  • Learn ways to ask for a sign and to get help understanding.
  • Form and respond to YES/NO and WH- questions in the context of talking about people they interact with in the community.
  • Learn Body and Instrument classifiers and the conventional order of descriptors, and use them to describe people. 

TOPICS COVERED

This course covers the following topics:

  • Greetings & Introductions.
  • Talking about Yourself and Others.
  • Making Requests.
  • Let’s Eat.
  • People in the Neighborhood.
Course Details:
• One Semester Credit: $125
• First Semester of American Sign Language 1
Approvals
NCAA: Yes