Course Description
Continuation of Level 8 with emphasis on ASL narrative techniques. This course will guide students to develop advanced ASL skills while furthering their ability to analyze and critique their own narrative samples. Students will learn to make clear visual sense, using appropriate time sequence, use of space, facial grammar/affect, and visual detail. Ongoing skill development includes visualization of meaning, use of classifiers, locatives, ASL mouthing, and incorporating humour appropriately. This course is required for students in the Sign Language Interpretation program.
Course Content
Sentence structures, vocabulary and narrative techniques:
- Non-manual markers made with the mouth
- Facial grammar and emotive affect, including humour
- All question and statement types
- Constructed dialogue and constructed action
- Time/tense markers and use of timelines
- Discourse genres: instructional, argumentative, informational, expository & persuasive
Building knowledge of ASL’s numbering systems:
- Variations in context-specific ordinal number formats
- Variations in context-specific cardinal number formats
- Introductory vocabulary for talking about math
Making clear visual sense:
- Topicalization and contextualization
- 7 expansion/contextualization techniques
- Consistency in use of referential space
- Level of visual detail
- Discourse cohesion
- Overall meaning and intent, including humour
Learning Activities
Class activities may include lecture and language lab, demonstration/modelling, dialogue and small group conversational practice, course readings/videos, and shadowing language models, among others.
Means of Assessment
This course will conform to The Douglas College Evaluation Policy regarding the number and weighting of evaluations. Typical means of evaluation may include a combination of:
- Quizzes to evaluate factual knowledge of ASL & Deaf culture
- Quizzes to evaluate receptive ASL skills
- Demonstration of expressive ASL skills
- Assigned dialogues and interaction
- Attendance and participation
Sample grade breakdown for this course might be as follows:
Video assignment 1: 20%
Video assignment 2: 20%
Mid-term exam 1: 20%
Mid-term exam 2: 20%
Final exam: 20%
Total: 100%
No single assignment will be worth more than 20%.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate advanced ASL narration skills to do the following:
- Incorporate appropriate use of non-manual markers in signed utterances;
- Fluently use all 7 expansion/contextualization techniques;
- Construct cohesive narrative discourse with appropriate discourse markers and pauses for topic transition/maintenance;
- Appropriately incorporate the narrative techniques of constructed dialogue and constructed action;
- Use a wide variety of classifiers and locatives;
- Use appropriate number formats for particular contexts and;
- Maintain appropriate temporal aspect and use time/tense markers.
- Analyze and critique one’s own recorded ASL narratives.
- Paraphrase sample narratives by native language models.
- Identify narrator’s specific communication goals/intent, including humour.
- Demonstrate versatility to produce ASL discourse in different registers.
- Demonstrate versatility to produce ASL discourse in different genres.
Textbook Materials
The instructor might choose an ASL textbook such as:
Smith, Cheri. (2008). Signing Naturally 3. Student Workbook. San Diego, CA: DawnSignPress.