C. Hellberg 1
Suffolk County Community College
Education, Health & Human Services Department
Course Title:
Course Number:
Instructor:
Office:
E-Mail:
Meeting Times:
American Sign Language I
SL10
Spring 2007
Phone:
By appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is designed to introduce students to American Sign Language (ASL): the visual-gestural
language of the deaf. It will incorporate non-verbal communication techniques, basic vocabulary,
grammar, and conversational skills. In addition, students will gain an understanding of the deaf
community- its history, culture and values.
COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
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Demonstrate the ability to handle interruptions and resume conversations, control conversational
pace, provide feedback, and open and close conversations through small group exercises and
instructor-led dialogues
Develop and use a conversational vocabulary to discuss family, occupations, daily routines,
attribute qualities, describe physical surroundings, make simple requests and to discuss quantities
Develop and use a conversation vocabulary to make suggestions, more complex requests, and
complaints; to express concern and opinions; to ask for clarification; to relate life events
Develop and use a conversational vocabulary to explain rules, to discuss health conditions,
finances and discuss major life decision
Recognize and use idiomatic expressions, loan signs ,and both citation and conversational forms
of sign production
Recognize and utilize appropriate conversational and storytelling register
Recognize and utilize appropriate facial grammatical facial markers for sentence types, negations,
commands, topic focus; and both pronominal classifiers, and size and shape specifiers
Recognize and utilize topic-comment structure, temporal aspect, verb inflection, conditional
sentences, possessive form, contrastive structure and adverbial facial markers
Recognize and utilizes role-shifting, maintaining special agreement, sequencing classifiers, and
organizing information
REQUIRED TEXT:
Lentz, Ella Mae, Mikos, Kenneth, and Smith, Cheri. Signing Naturally,
Student Workbook & Videotape/DVD - Level 1, Berkeley, CA. (1998), Dawn Sign Press.
GRADING:
Attendance ……………………………………..10%
Reaction Paper…………………………………10%
Quizzes …………………………………………20%
Midterm ………………………………………...25%
Final ……………………………………………..35%
Quizzes:
Throughout this course, students will be quizzed on their “receptive skills,” meaning
their ability to understand individual signs, fingerspelling, and short sentences.
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Reaction Paper:
Students are required to attend one “Deaf Event” during the semester and write a
reaction paper on the experience. Details of this assignment are outlined below.
Midterm:
The midterm will assess students’ receptive and expressive skills. Expressive skills
refer to the students’ ability to produce signs. The receptive portion of the midterm
will be conducted in class while the expressive portion will be done in a 1:1 session
with the instructor and will be videotaped.
Final:
The final exam will also assess students’ receptive and expressive skills using the same
format as the midterm. Students will receive 1:1 feedback on their final performance
exam during the last class period.
Deaf Culture Experience Reaction Paper
Requirements: For each reaction paper assigned, you must first attend a pre-approve Deaf Culture event
for at least an hour. After the event, share your reactions to the experience in a two page, typed, doublespaced paper. In your paper, avoid the logistical details of the experience and focus on how you felt, how
communication went, and any examples of Deaf culture you may have experienced or observed.
An Alternative to “Live” Cultural Experiences
If you are unable to attend a “live” Deaf Culture event you may watch and one of the following recorded
events that are on reserve in the Media room of the SCCC Library and write a reaction paper it.
Deaf Mosaic #908 – Deaf Mosaic was a weekly Deaf, television talk show that aired for many years in
America in the 1990’s. This is a VHS videotape of one episode. It is 30 minutes long and open captioned.
Breaking the Barriers – This professional documentary video is of the 1993 Summer World Games for the
Deaf (WGD) in Sofia, Bulgaria. This video is 30 minutes long, in open captions and spoken English.
Signers In Paris – This amateur, 63 minute DVD is of the experience of a group of American, hearing
signers who took a 9-day course on French Sign Language and Deaf French Culture in Paris the summer of
2005. The DVD is not captioned and contains a mix of ASL, French Sign Language, International Sign
Language and written English.
CLASS ATTENDANCE:
The college expects that each student will exercise personal responsibility with regard to class
attendance. All students are expected to attend every class session of each course for which they are
registered. Students are responsible for all that transpires in class whether or not they are in attendance,
even if absences are the result of late registration or add/drop activity at the beginning of a term as
permitted by college policy. The college defines excessive absence or lateness as more than the equivalent
of one week of class meetings during the semester. Since this class meets only once a week, that means
you can only miss one class. Excessive absence or lateness may lead to failure in a course or removal from
the class roster.
Because it is your responsibility to find out what was covered in a missed class, I suggest you exchange
phone numbers and/or email addresses with two people in class and jot them down below.
Name: __________________________________
Phone:__________________________________
Email: __________________________________
CLASSROOM POLICIES:
Name: __________________________________
Phone:__________________________________
Email: __________________________________
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Because American Sign Language is a visual, not a spoken language, sign classes at SCCC are
conducted without the use of voice. Students enrolled in ASL courses are expected to
communicate in sign or through writing during class. Students may talk outside the classroom
during breaks. The instructor reserves the right to ask a student to leave the classroom if s/he
violates this policy. The use of voice during a test will cause the student to receive an
automatic “F” on that test.
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Cell phones and pagers must be set to silent or vibrate during class time.
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The use of messaging devices is limited to outside the classroom for emergencies only.
Frequent exits for the use of messaging devices can be counted as partial absences.