ASLA 111 - American Sign Language I

3 Credits
American Sign Language (ASL) provides language training and cultural enrichment for people who wish to learn ASL and the uniqueness of deaf culture. This class will not prepare students to become interpreters but is designed to introduce students to the language and culture. This class is particularly useful for students pursuing careers such as allied health, nursing, medical management, or other healthcare related fields as well as paralegal studies where clients may be deaf. The class is designed to allow students to complement their degrees with an ASL experience.

Course Learning Outcomes:
1. Apply basic language skills to produce ASL in a variety of ways to communicate effectively with deaf adults and children who depend on visual representations of English for communication.
2. Use classifiers through directionality, word signs, noun placements, and non-manual signals.
3. Produce intermediate receptive comprehension and expressive information.
4. Recognize the diversity of the deaf culture through theory discussion, guest speakers, and local events.