Seminar: 4 hours per week
Class activities may include: lecture and language lab, demonstration/modelling, dialogue and small group conversational practice, course readings/videos, among others.
The content includes:
Sentence structures, vocabulary and narrative techniques needed for:
- Describing and identifying objects
- Talking about the weekend
- Exchanging personal information and life events
- Depicting a timeline for life and/or world events
- Storytelling techniques
- ASL classifiers for size, texture, movement and use of an object
- Verb inflections for temporal aspect
- Creating traditional ASL handshape poetry
- Expansion of knowledge of ASL’s numbering systems
Conversational strategies:
- Directing and maintaining attention
- Using confirming and clarifying questions
- Asking for help with spelling of names
Some notable Deaf people in history:
- Deaf spies in American Civil War
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate intermediate conversational ASL skill to do the following:
- Describe objects’ shape, size, texture
- Define something by how it looks, how it works, how it is made
- Create and narrate some life events such as about a person from birth to death (eg. a well-known actor or politician)
- Narrate briefly any world events (eg. establishment of Gallaudet University or schools for the Deaf in Canada)
- Recognise and use ASL number formats for dates and for money
- Perform a simple ASL rhyming handshape poem
- Narrate about weekend activities with temporal aspect
- Demonstrate the use of appropriate register in ASL when narrating or storytelling
- Demonstrate appropriate conversation strategies and reciprocal signals
- Recognise and use appropriate ASL sign directionality and spatial movement/agreement in all 3 dimensions
- Name some Deaf figures from history
This course will conform to the Douglas College Evaluation Policy regarding the number and weighting of evaluations. Typical means of evaluation may include a combination of:
- Quizzes to evaluate factual knowledge of ASL & Deaf culture
- Quizzes to evaluate receptive ASL skills
- Demonstration of expressive ASL skills
- Assigned dialogues and interaction
- Attendance and participation
Sample grade breakdown for this course might be as follows:
Video assignment 1: 20%
Video assignment 2: 20%
Mid-term exam 1: 20%
Mid-term exam 2: 20%
Final exam: 20%
Total: 100%
No single assignment will be worth more than 20%.
The instructor might choose an ASL textbook such as:
Smith, Cheri. (2008). Signing Naturally 2. Student Workbook. San Diego, CA: DawnSignPress.
MODL 2161 or Assessment