American Sign Language

Instructor: Christopher Blatto
E-mail: Christopher.blatto@araphaoe.edu

Course Descriptions

ASL 121

ASL 121 Syllabus

Prerequisite: None. This is a beginner course

Course Description: This course is an Introduction to American Sign Language. Readiness activities are conducted focusing on visual/receptive skills and basic communication. We will be following Vista’s Signing Naturally curriculum which integrates functional language in context, specific grammatical features and vocabulary/key phrases.
No voice interpreting will be provided at anytime during class.

Course Objectives: The objective of this course is to provide students with the opportunity to develop receptive skills to fully understand signs and finger spelling. Even though the emphasis of the course will be on receptive skills, expressive skills will also be a priority.

Student Competencies: Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:

1. Understand and use facial and eyes expression, and other non-manual behaviors
2. Sign vocabulary and numbers
3. Use appropriate basic descriptive classifiers to describe people and objects
4. Express ideas and concepts through receptive skills, signs and finger spelling
5. participate in class activities such as Sign Production, Interaction and Learning Activities
6. Incorporate American Sign Language grammar rules in expressive signing
7. Recognize colloquial signs and idiomatic expressions used in context
8. Demonstrate ability to carry on simple conversations in ASL about topics such as family and routine activities.
9. Demonstrate comprehension of ASL syntax in various forms, i.e. narratives, dialogues, question and answer sessions.

ASL 122

ASL 122 Syllabus

Prerequisite: ASL 121 or demonstration of basic receptive skills by passing the ASL 121 proficiency exam

Required material: Learning American Sign Language, by Tom Humphries and Carol Padden

Course Description and Objectives: This course is the second course of American Sign Language. It is designed to provide the student with the opportunity to develop a basic syntactic knowledge of American Sign Language and vocabulary, expressive skills and intermediate conversational skills. Vital aspects of deaf culture and community are incorporated.
No voice interpreting will be provided at anytime during class.

Student Competencies: Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:

1. Use appropriate attention-getting and attending techniques consistently
2. Maintain an appropriate signing space
3. Demonstrate ability to carry on more advanced conversations about topics such as family background, routine activities, occupations, technological devices used by deaf persons, and giving directions.
4. Use various classifiers appropriately in context: descriptive, locative, semantic, body and body part, instrument and plural classifiers
5. Use correct syntax for the following sentences types: negation, yes/no questions, wh-word questions, topicalized sentences and rethorical questions.
6. Recognize colloquial signs and idiomatic expressions used in context.
7. Describe how American Sign Language developed as a language, and the role of ASL in the Deaf community.