ASL 101 - American Sign Language I

Credits: 3
Lecture Hours: 3
Lab Hours: 1
This total immersion course adheres to the Functional-Notional Approach to second language acquisition, which focuses on the communicative needs of people engaged in common everyday interactions. Functions that help students establish and maintain social relationships are emphasized. Sessions will introduce formal and informal registers in American Sign Language. Grammar and language structure are taught through meaningful and experiential activities, which adhere to research findings on the importance of incorporating facial grammar, mouth morphemes and non-manual signals in the early stages of learning American Sign Language as a second language. Students will progress in formulating ideas and engaging in conversations from concrete to abstract through role-playing in everyday interactions using basic total language concepts.