Course

American Sign Language Level 8

Faculty
Language, Literature & Performing Arts
Department
Modern Languages
Course code
MODL 2164
Credits
3.00
Semester length
15 Weeks
Max class size
22
Method(s) of instruction
Seminar
Course designation
Certificate in Global Competency
Industry designation
None
Typically offered
To be determined

Overview

Course description
Continuation of emphasis on ASL narration skills, as in Level 7. This course guides intermediate-advanced ASL users to focus on developing skills in comprehending and using ASL narrative techniques, classifiers and locatives, and ASL non-manual markers with the mouth. Students will advance their skills in creating cohesive ASL discourse using appropriate discourse topic and transition markers. Students will also apply skills related to discourse mapping of ASL texts and reconstruct ASL discourse from diagrams of their own design. This course is required for students in the Sign Language Interpretation program.
Course content

Sentence structures, vocabulary and narrative techniques: 

  • Non-manual markers made with the mouth
  • Rhetorical questions
  • Relative clauses 
  • Use of left/right space for comparisons
  • Constructed dialogue and constructed action
  • Time/tense markers and use of timelines
  • Discourse genres: instructional, argumentative, informational, expository & persuasive
  • 7 expansion/contextualization techniques

Building knowledge of ASL’s numbering systems:

  • Variations in context-specific ordinal number formats
  • Variations in context-specific cardinal number formats 
  • Money-related numbers and vocabulary

Narrating about major decisions, accidents, money management:

  • Discourse markers for sequencing, comparing, explaining
  • Related verbs and other vocabulary
  • Sharing and giving opinions

Introduction to Deaf advocacy organizations and events:

  • Local, provincial, national, international 
Learning activities

Class activities may include lecture and language lab, demonstration/modelling, dialogue and small group conversational practice, course readings, videos, and shadowing language models, among others. 

Means of assessment

This course will conform to the ºÚÁϱ¬ÁÏÍø Evaluation policy regarding the number and weighting of evaluations. Typical means of evaluation may include a combination of:

  • Qui