Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
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ASL Course Descriptions
ASL 101: Level 1
Course Description: Introduction to the structure of American Sign Language, as well as to the history and culture of the Deaf Community. Grammar is introduced in context, with an emphasis on developing question and answer skills.
Required Text: Smith, Lentz, and Mikos (1988). Signing Naturally. Student videotext and work book, Level 1 . Dawn Sign Press.
ASL 102: Level 2
Course Description: This course is designed to improve conversational skills in ASL to a functional level for expressive and receptive use.
equired Text: Smith, Lentz, and Mikos (1988). Signing Naturally. Student videotext and work book, Level 1 . Dawn Sign Press.
ASL 201: Level 3
Course Description: This course is a continuation of American Sign Language, expanding the emphasis on ASL grammar, vocabulary development, and Deaf culture. Dialogue, short stories, narratives, and short conversation, both receptive and expressive, will be featured through the course.
equired Text: Smith, Lentz, and Mikos (1988). Signing Naturally. Student videotext and work book, Level 2 . Dawn Sign Press.
ASL 202: Level 4
Course Description: This course is a continuation of American Sign Language, Level 3, expanding the emphasis on ASL grammar, vocabulary development, and Deaf culture. Dialogue, short stories, narratives, and short conversation, both receptive and expressive, will be featured through the course.
equired Text: Smith, Lentz, and Mikos (1988). Signing Naturally. Student videotext and work book, Level 2 . Dawn Sign Press.
ASL 230: ASL in Conversation and Narrative
Course Description: This course is an introduction to a variety of artistic uses of ASL in narrative, poetry and theater. Students will focus on the development of expressive skills in ASL and understanding the linguistic structure of ASL as a basis for enhancing their communicative competence.
Required Texts: Texts vary from semester to semester according to the topics covered.
ASL 280: THE AMERICAN DEAF COMMUNITY: LANGUAGE,CULTURE, SOCIETY
Course Description: This course is a survey of the linguistic, cultural, and societal context of the deaf community in America. Both historical and contemporary aspects of Deaf identity will be included, with an emphasis on the central role that ASL plays in the lives of Deaf individuals. The objective of this course is to introduce students to the culture of the Deaf community and the role of American Sign Language (ASL) in that culture. Selected basic structures of ASL will be introduced, and the overall structure of ASL will be compared with that of other signed and spoken languages. Deaf people in American society and their cultural practices, past and present, will be compared with the corresponding societal roles and cultural practices of deaf people in other countries and with those of other minority groups in America. Students will be exposed to the genres of ASL literature and to its significance.
Required Texts:
Hoffmeister, and Ben Bahan. (1996). A Journey into the Deaf World . San Diego: Dawn Sign Press;
auman, H-Dirksen L., Nelson, Jennifer, and Rose, Heidi. (2006) Signing the Body Poetic: Essays on American Sign Language Literature . Berkeley: University of California Press.
Related Courses
SLHS 419A: Contrasting ASL and English Grammar
Course Description: In this course, the morphological, syntactic, semantic, and phonological structures of English, an Indo-European language, will be illuminated by placing them in contrast with a non-Indo-European language, American Sign Language. In addition to structural differences, students will become acquainted with the differences in the analytical tools one must use to study ASL, a relatively young language with no commonly used writing system, and English, a language with a long history and written tradition. Topics covered will include oral and written literary traditions, the tense and aspect systems, word order, and the classifier and pronominal systems of English and ASL.
Texts: Vary, according to specific areas addressed
SLHS 519K: Language and Deafness
Course Description: This course will focus on the language, communication, and culture of those individuals whose hearing loss is profound (i.e., those that are unable to acquire proficiency in spoken language thorough the auditory/vocal channel. Background readings and lectures will be used to establish the issues to be discussed; details will be provided by a set of specially selected articles which present current research information on aspects of signing, reading, writing, and speaking.
Texts: Vary, according to specific areas addressed
SLHS 500: Linguistic Analysis of Sign Language
Linguistic nature of signed languages compared to spoken languages. Phonological and morphological structure of a sign, syntactic structure of signed sentences, psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic processing, sociolinguistics, variation in dialects, and sign language usage are considered.
Texts: Vary, according to specific areas addressed