Course description
This intensive course is designed for advanced ASL students to continue increasing their ASL vocabulary and proficiency. Students will have many opportunities to practice using ASL and to continuously incorporate feedback from native ASL users, classmates and oneself. This course will also explore the difference in how English and ASL convey concepts in different settings (education, medical, community, etc). 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
- Facial grammar and emotive affect, including humour
- Constructed dialogue and constructed action, and accompanying eye gaze
- Time/tense markers and use of timelines
Building ASL vocabulary in specific settings:
- Health/medical – talking about health and basic medical concerns/experiences
- Educational – talking about school and university/college
- Math – continuing to expand fluency in ASL number depictions
- Community – talking about current and local events, organizations, places and issues
Increasing adaptability to diverse ASL users:
- Language use across the ASL-Contact-English continuum
- Variations due to demographics (age, background, geographical area)
Making clear visual sense:
- Topicalization and contextualization
- Consistency in use of referential space
- Level of visual detail
- Discourse markers, cohesion, prosody
- Overall meaning and intent, including humour
Learning activities
Class activities may include lecture and language lab, demonstration/modelling, dialogue and small group conversational practice, course readings and videos, among ot