American Sign Language Level 3

 The content includes:

• Deaf cultural norms/behaviors of greeting, introducing, conversing and leaving
• Appropriate vocabulary to maintain and carry on a conversation that includes a description of neighborhood and surroundings
• Describing locations and how to go from one location to another
• Forming requests and asking for advice
• Producing cardinal numbers
• Understanding the Deaf community as a linguistic and cultural minority, not as disabled
• Culturally appropriate norms of social interaction – behaviors such as how to interrupt an ASL conversation between two persons, of whom at least one is Deaf

The following global ideas guide the design and delivery of this course:

1. The Deaf community comprises a vibrant linguistic and cultural minority whose members are connected to each other through shared values, norms, art, traditions and especially the primacy of using a signed language.
2. The creativity and strength of the Deaf community contribute positively to the larger human society; Deaf lives exemplify unique and enriching ways of seeing and being in the world.
3. ASL (American Sign Language), LSQ (la Langue des Signes Québécoises) and ISL (Indigenous Sign Languages) are rich, visual-gestural languages used by Deaf people in Canada. Signed languages are distinctly different from spoken languages; they have their own syntax, vocabulary, grammatical structures, pragmatic norms, and literary forms.
4. Studying ASL can be an exciting challenge for the majority of people who have only used language(s) that are spoken and auditory. Because ASL is a visual-gestural language, it requires the learner to use their eyes to take in linguistic information and to use their hands, face, and body to convey linguistic information. Even though spoken languages incorporate some form of gestural communication, the use of 3-dimensional space is an integral feature of the structure of ASL.