Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

 This course meets for 6 credit hours instead of the usual 4 credit hours a week.  This course is a continuation of the major grammatical features of ASL to develop communicative and interactive competencies in the language and culture of the Deaf.  This course also focuses on ASL literature by introducing students to ASL storytelling techniques, story analysis and ASL poetry and its techniques.  This course utilizes receptive skills through videotapes.  Students are expected to experiment with ASL storytelling and poetry.  Cultural information is shared through readings and classroom discussions.

Upon completion of this course students should be able to:

1. Narrate and describe events in all the major time frames including relevant and supporting facts in a connected, paragraph-length ASL discourse.
2. Express information with sufficient accuracy, clarity, and precision to convey the intended message.
3. Demonstrate skill in narratives and ASL storytelling; e.g. fairytale and folktale.
4. Apply ASL linguistic and grammar features such as the use of restructuring space, classifiers, role-shifting, and use of communicative strategies like rephrasing, register, explanation or anecdote.
5. Examine the linguistic and cultural diversity found within Deaf communities as reflected in the morals and themes in ASL folktales. 

Students are expected to attend all classes, participate actively in classroom activities, and complete homework assignments. Students may record videos of their work in class, the language lab, or at home as assigned by the instructor. ASL will be used in the classroom at all times; no spoken English is permitted. Students should plan to spend about one hour in preparation and practice outside of class for each class hour.

Assessment strategies include observation of students' in-class receptive and expressive use of ASL, written assessments of cultural knowledge, and performance assessments on receptive and expressive skills. 

The course focuses on the acquisition and correct use of sign production, grammatical structures, functional vocabulary, and cultural concepts for the purpose of successful communication in American Sign Language. Successful students will be able to use the following communication topics and structures:

• Classifiers

• Comparisons

• Movement agreement

• Discourse and transitions

• Life events

• Money

• Poetry

• Storytelling