LISL 1AR: American Sign Language (ASL) Language and Culture, Level 1
About This Course
This course is your introduction to American Sign Language (ASL) and the American Deaf Culture.
This course is part of the Linguistics Language Program at UC San Diego.
Credit: 5 units
What You Will Learn
You will learn to sign ASL to communicate in simple, everyday situations by practicing dialogues and engaging in small group conversations under the guidance of a proficient signer. You’ll learn to sign and understand key linguistic structures of ASL, including sentence types, use of movement, space, and facial expressions, and about how and when fingerspelling is used in a signed conversation or story. You’ll become acquainted with a few key figures in Deaf history and delve into the rich diversity within today’s Deaf community.
The course also explores the iconic roots of some ASL signs, a few international signs used to communicate with signers in the global Deaf Community and the essential techniques of ASL storytelling.
Prerequisites
None.
The course assumes no prerequisite knowledge.
Course Meeting Details
Required Live Sessions: Mondays / Wednesdays / Fridays from 4:00 - 4:50 PM
Required synchronous sessions focusing on conversation will occur three times per week.
This course includes both synchronous and asynchronous components.
The analysis/comprehensive part of the course is delivered asynchronously with video lectures and asynchronous weekly homework.
There will be asynchronous midterm and final comprehension exams as well as a synchronous final conversation exam with the instructor by individual appointment.