SLIS 1010 - American Sign Language I

6.0 Credits

This course acquaints students with American Sign Language, develops visual acuity, and builds comfort with the use of body and facial expressions to convey information. It uses a practical approach to teaching vocabulary, grammar, and the cultural aspects through real-life conversational experiences. Students further acclimate to the new modality of this language via classroom experiences conducted without voice. The course introduces additional information about interacting with the deaf community via outside community events, additional readings, and lab activities.

Lecture Hours: 6.0
Lab Hours: 0.0
Internship Hours: 0.0
Clinical or Practicum Hours: 0.0

Course Objectives

Demonstrate the ability to handle interruptions and resume conversations, control conversational pace, provide feedback, and open and close conversations through exercises and dialogues.
Develop and use a conversational vocabulary to discuss family, occupations, daily routines, attribute qualities, describe physical surroundings, make simple requests and to discuss quantities.
Develop and use a conversational vocabulary to make suggestions, more complex requests, and complaints; to express concern and opinions; to ask for clarification; to relate life events.
Develop and use a conversational vocabulary to explain rules, to discuss health conditions, finances and discuss major life decision.
Use idiomatic expressions, loan signs, and both citation and conversational forms of sign production.
Use appropriate conversational and storytelling register.
Use appropriate facial grammatical facial markers for sentence types, negations, commands, topic focus; and both pronominal classifiers, and size and shape specifies.
Use topic-comment structure, temporal aspect, verb inflection, conditional sentences, possessive form, contrastive structure and adverbial facial markers.
Use role-shifting, maintaining special agreement, sequencing classifiers, and organizing information.

View Class Schedule