AMSL110 American Sign Language I
Department of Language & Literature: American Sign Language
- I. Course Number and Title
- AMSL110 American Sign Language I
- II. Number of Credits
- 3 credits
- III. Number of Instructional Minutes
- 2250
- IV. Prerequisites
- None
- Corequisites
- None
- V. Other Pertinent Information
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This course may not satisfy foreign language requirements at transfer institutions.
This course meets the General Education requirement in Arts/Humanities.
This course meets the General Education requirement in Diversity. - VI. Catalog Course Description
- In this introduction to American Sign Language, students develop visual receptive skills, with a focus on visual memory, visual discrimination, and gestural expressive skills, and learn basic ASL vocabulary and grammatical structures. This course introduces students to the American Deaf Community as a linguistic and cultural minority.
- VII. Required Course Content and Direction
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Course Learning Goals
Students will:
- develop receptive and expressive skills in American Sign Language [Arts/Humanities];
- recognize and produce ASL vocabulary and grammatical structures; and
- articulate an awareness of some of the cross-cultural issues facing the American Deaf Community as a minority culture [Diversity].
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Planned Sequence of Topics and/or Learning Activities
- practice and apply the grammatical forms mentioned below in the communicative context of expressive and receptive signing skills
- acquire and use appropriate vocabulary based on the everyday topics mentioned below
- determine the right way to express themselves in various social settings, by learning on an elementary level “how, when, and why to say what to whom”
- compare and contrast the various cultural aspects of Deaf culture and community with their own
Grammatical Topics:
Vocabulary and non-manual grammatical signals for question forms (yes/no and “wh”-forms)
Negation Pronoun relationships (indicative, possessive)
Subject-object relationships and directionality
Non-manual adjectives for distance
Use of space
Contrastive structure
Numbering systems for cardinal numbers, age and calendar time
Vocabulary and Social Contexts:
Introduce themselves and others
Exchange personal information
Talk about their surroundings
Tell about where they live and modes of transportation
Talk about families
Talk about daily activities
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Assessment Methods for Course Learning Goals
Students will:
- take frequent quizzes and unit tests;
- complete homework, such as short composition and grammatical exercises;
- perform visual comprehension exercises; and
- participate in visual interviews and/or presentations that assess proficiency levels.
Quizzes and tests taken in class include the cultural topics presented in the course. Students articulate similarities and differences in the various cultures of the world and demonstrate familiarity with the skills necessary to make informed judgments.
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Reference, Resource, or Learning Materials to be used by Student:
Students use text, multimedia resources, and workbook of first-year proficiency-based American Sign Language program and a supplemental cultural reader. See course syllabus.
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Review/Approval Date -3/98; Core Goals/Objectives added 4/04; Revised 4/2011; New Core 8/2015