Who doesn’t see someone signing and think to themselves, “Wow, that’s so cool! I’d love to learn that someday!”? Sign language IS a beautiful language, and as with any other foreign language it can help bring cultures together and lead us in appreciating the Deaf culture and the people that belong to it.

This class will begin at the beginning; however, it will increase in difficulty quickly. We will learn sentence types and sentence structure as well as hand shapes, classifiers, facial expressions, body expressions, lexical signs, time, and much more. Students will study a new vocabulary list each week. This course will teach interpretation skills while also strongly emphasizing conversation skills. As with any language, American Sign Language is a complex language with its own structure, rules, and exceptions, which is why it is considered a foreign language.

Homework will consist of reviewing vocabulary, learning Deaf history and culture, creating sentences, dialogue, and stories with the weekly vocabulary. Occasional quizzes and an assignment at the end of each semester will evaluate students’ knowledge of the vocabulary and the various concepts taught throughout the semester.

Please view prerequisites and required supplies below.

 

Note: Microphone and camera capability are a requirement for this dynamic class experience both in class and in use of the LMS. We do not recommend attending this course via phone or small tablet as students cannot see all the components well enough on small screens.