Beginning ASL Part 1 is for students new to the world of ASL and Deaf Culture. The class is designed to include all the fundamentals of American Sign Language and its grammar, along with Deaf Culture basics, presented in a fun, engaging manner intended to prepare and interest students in additional ASL classes. Additional classes will build greater vocabulary while having cultural understanding already in place.
Learning Objectives: This course is designed as an introduction to American Sign Language and American Deaf Culture. The main concepts and lessons in this class include: the five parameters of signs, differences between ASL and Signed English, facial expression and Non-Manual Signs, proper terminology in the Deaf Community, syntax and timing for asking questions, ASL backchanneling, the basic history of ASL, the ASL timeline, Deaf Culture, Name Signs, Agent Suffix, basic ASL sentence structure, and verb tenses.
Vocabulary in this course focuses on beginning conversational signs: introductions, greetings and responses, personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, fingerspelling (the manual alphabet), question words, numbers 0-19, school and classroom signs, some directional verbs, and days of the week.