Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

ASL 102 is the second term of a three-term sequence in First Year American Sign Language at the college level. Communicative proficiency is the main objective of the sequence.

This course utilizes the Functional/Notional approach in learning grammar in the context of communicative activities. It is designed to help the students build their receptive skills, learn vocabulary through context, and develop strategies for figuring out meaning and to build upon that foundation. This course uses curriculum from, “Signing Naturally, Units 1-6”. This course covers Unit 4 plus “The Gallaudet and Clerc Story” from Unit 6, Unit 5 plus “Childhood Stories” from Unit 6, and if time permits – the instructor can give 1 or 2 themes for students to develop their own stories.

Communicative proficiency is the main objective of the sequence. The curriculum and the lessons are designed to help the class and the program meet the five areas of Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons and Communities outlined by American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). In addition, students will gain cultural awareness and appreciation.

Due to the design of the curriculum and the lessons, instructors and students will be required to have access to computers to use CD-Rom as part of teaching and to do the assignments.  In addition, ASL is a visual language so it is critical that the classrooms are of appropriate sized (square not long and narrow) so the students can sit in a semi-circle and be able to see everyone in order to participate in the dialogues and develop their receptive skill by viewing other students and instructor’s dialogues. This is critical for a maximum learning environment.

ASL 102 is offered for 5 hours of transferable credit. It satisfies part of the foreign language requirement for the B.A. degree, counts as an elective for the A.A. degree, and contributes to the general education requirement for other Associate Degrees.

Prerequisite: Successful completion of ASL 101 or the equivalent language experience in ASL to be determined by the Sign Language Proficiency Interview. Students whose skill level in ASL is more advanced than that of ASL 102 will not be admitted.

Special Fee: ($15.00 to $20.00 to CyberASL as part of course requirement)

Upon completion of ASL 102 course students:
Are able to handle successfully a limited number of interactive, task-oriented and social situations.
Can ask and answer questions, initiate and respond to simple statements and generally maintain face-to-face conversation.
Continue to apply language-learning skills outside the language classroom.
Act with respect and better understanding of Deaf people and ASL, with an appreciation for their linguistic and cultural diversity.
To have a passing grade, students will exhibit mastery of target language at Intermediate Low (ACTFL guideline) at completion of course.

Uses activities and materials from Signing Naturally, Units 1-6 as stated specifically in Addendum to Course Description. Students are expected to attend all classes, participate actively in classroom activities, and prepare expressive homework assignments. Students may video record their work in the classroom or Lab or at home (as indicated by the instructor).  ASL will be used in the classroom at all times. No spoken language or voice will be permitted in the classroom. Students should plan to spend at least 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 quizzes on cultural knowledge and on receptive skills, and videotaping of students' expressive use of ASL. Students will be assessed in their competence in using the language as demonstrated by the quality of receptive and expressive preparation and participation and assignments. Attendance is an important factor but it is not used as assessment tool. As part of this course, the students will also take quizzes online through Cyber ASL. 

• The course focuses on the acquisition and correct use of parameters, non-manuals signals, grammatical markers, grammatical structures, functional vocabulary, and cultural concepts for the purpose of successful communication in ASL. Successful students have reviewed, expanded and perfected previously learned material, have practiced, and will be able to use the following communication topics and structures:

  Talking about immediate/ extended family and family relationships, and desires for the future, ranking among siblings/parents and the relationships including similarities and differences among self and siblings

  Discuss family pictures, information about occasions and holidays, relationship, martial status, age, how old, and changes in relationships

  Talking about everyday activities, chores, errands, how often, about activities with others, about what one does for a living,

  Cardinal Numbers: 67-69,76-79,86-89, 96-98, 1-100

  Ordinal Numbers: Age, Ranking, Placements

  List on weak hand and reference to point

  Number form, movement and palm orientation for letter combinations, hand position

  Childhood Stories – understand and analyze and practice various skills for each story.

  Semantics

  Non-manual Signals (conversational behaviors), Grammatical markers, Grammatical Structures

  Sentence Types

  Topicalization

  Contrastive structures

  Narrative Structures

  Negate sentences, Negative statements

  Yes/No questions

  Wh-questions: what, who, where, how-many, which, when, how come, how long

  Rhetorical questions

  Responses

  Use various transitions in context

  Pronouns, personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, third person personal and possessive pronouns, plural pronouns

  Use of spatial location, role shift,

  Verbs: action, agreement verbs

  Word order with time signs, and frequency

  Appropriate form, movement, palm orientation, hand position for fingerspelling words and numbers

  Use of grammatical markers and non-manual signals

  Use of signing space, spatial agreement, referring to established location, map orientation (vertical and horizontal), transitions

  Classifiers

  Eye gaze

  Weak hand as reference point, weak hand functioning as a dominant hand

  Pauses, engaging the audience

  Tell a cohesion story, retell story, setting up of a story

  Semantics

  Non-manual signals (facial markers)