Pre-Interpreting ASL – IV

Curriculum Guideline

Effective Date:
Course
Discontinued
No
Course Code
INTR 2475
Descriptive
Pre-Interpreting ASL – IV
Department
Sign Language Interpretation
Faculty
Applied Community Studies
Credits
1.50
Start Date
End Term
Not Specified
PLAR
Yes
Semester Length
Flexible delivery ranging over 1 to 15 weeks
Max Class Size
16
Contact Hours
30 hours – Lecture 5 hours - Lab
Method(s) Of Instruction
Lecture
Lab
Learning Activities
  • Lecture/discussion
  • Modeling
  • Practice/critique
Course Description
In this course students will demonstrate advanced ASL skills, and mastery of and appropriate use of ASL linguistic techniques. Students will learn to be versatile in adapting their ASL usage to meet the variety of needs among consumers of interpreting. This will include being able to use contact sign when appropriate.
Course Content

The following global ideas guide the design and delivery of this course:

  • ASL tends to be highly descriptive and detailed as well as narrative in nature.  Fluent users of ASL apply the correct semantic lexical choices and use linguistic techniques to convey meaning.
  • Fluent users of ASL structure discourse according to real-time sequencing and have a diverse semantic range in which classifiers, spatial locatives, directional verbs and affect markers are used to provide specific semantic information.
  • Fluent ASL signers use correct grammatical structure.  They are able to incorporate sign sequencing with visual grammatical markers to communicate in a variety of registers and can adapt their language to numerous contextual variations.  These include special ways of communicating with Deaf children, youth, senior citizens, novice sign language users, etc.
  • Individuals who work with Deaf children, youth and adults are expected to be aware of the cultural aspects of the language and community and demonstrate cultural sensitivity and proper social behaviours.
  • Regional differences exist in ASL used throughout North America and interpreters need to adapt their language use to the norms of the region in which they work.
  • Second language users should understand how “polite” and “artistic” linguistic structures are used and when/where it is appropriate for non-deaf people to use them.
  • Consumers of interpreting have diverse linguistic needs and interpreters must be versatile in varying their signing across a spectrum that includes ASL but also more English-like forms known as contact sign varieties.
Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate the ability to use ASL and contact signs in practicum settings, adapting discourse to content and consumer needs
  2. Adapt language use to incorporate regional differences in ASL
  3. Incorporate visual affect, time sequencing and appropriate levels of detail and cohesion in ASL discourse.
Means of Assessment

This course will conform to Douglas College policy regarding the number and weighting of evaluations. Typical means of evaluation would include a combination of:

  • Attendance and participation
  • Videotaped assignments
  • Written assignments
  • End-of-fourth-semester portfolio of the student’s work.

This is a mastery/non-mastery course.

Textbook Materials

T.B.A.

Prerequisites

INTR 2375 with a B or better