Sign Language--Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced Classes
Teacher: Sarah J. Horn
Grades: 6 - 12
Meets: T/Th
Class Description:
Beginning and Advanced American Sign Language:
American Sign Language (ASL) now counts as a foreign language credit! In both the beginning and advanced classes, students will be studying the vocabulary and unique sentence structure of ASL as well as gaining a better understanding of the deaf culture.
Both levels of ASL will have one grammar class and one music class each week (students will also have the option of signing up for just the grammar class or just the music class).
The music class will allow students to prepare songs of their choosing for at least two THEO recitals.
You may or may not have asked yourself what American Sign Language (ASL) actually means. This particular language does not simply use hand signs to communicate. In fact, there are so many aspects involved in this complex language that it hardly bears any semblance at all to the English language. One of the distinctive features, which we will study extensively in this course, is that of the unique sentence structure. We will also study other characteristics that are crucial to conveying the proper message in ASL, some of which are facial expressions, eye contact and body language. Furthermore, I will be teaching fingerspelling as well as vocabulary that pertains not only to everyday life, but also to scriptures and songs.
Two goals for these courses:
to offer a broader understanding of the deaf culture as a whole.
to provide necessary skills for pursuing jobs and ministries in the deaf world.
Prerequisites: None for Beginning ASL, Intermediate students must have taken Beginning Sign Language or else be able to demonstrate equivalent understanding of ASL. Advanced students must have successfully completed both Beginning and Intermediate classes.
Maximum number of students that you will allow to take this class: 15
Cost per student (numeric only): $50 per month
Homework: It will probably require at least one hour of work after each class.
Supplies that the students should bring to class:
There will be two required textbooks for this course:
Communicating in Sign: Creative Ways to Learn American Sign Language (ASL) by Diane Chambers et al.
A Basic Course In American Sign Language (Second Edition) Spiral-bound by Tom Humphries et al.
Both books can be purchased through amazon.com. The price varies
History of American Sign Language (ASL)
In the nineteenth century, the rate of deafness in America was 1 out of 5,700 people. However, in Martha’s Vineyard, an island five miles off the southeastern shore of Massachusetts, the rate of deafness was 1 out of every 155 people. In some areas of the island, the ratio was even higher. Many of the deaf people on Martha’s Vineyard immigrated from a region in England known as the Weald, in the county of Kent. Therefore, the most popular form of sign language on the island was similar to British Sign Language. Another name for this sign language was Vineyard Sign Language. Because so many deaf people populated Martha’s Vineyard and because so many of them used a British form of sign language, even hearing people on the island became fluent in Vineyard Sign Language. In fact, deafness was not considered to be a handicap on the island because hearing people and deaf people alike used sign language as part of their daily lives.
As British Sign Language was becoming popular on Martha’s Vineyard, other forms of sign language were being used and modified in France. There were two types of sign language in the Paris school for the deaf. There was OFSL (Old French Sign Language), which had a different grammar from spoken French and which was used in informal interactions; and there was Old Signed French, which was more similar to spoken French and was used in the classroom.
The development of sign language in France had a direct bearing on the development of American Sign Language (ASL) in North America. As many students and teachers from the deaf school in Paris started traveling across Europe and teaching OFSL and Old Signed French to the other countries, they caught the attention of a Yale graduate, whose name was Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. Gallaudet managed to convince a brilliant deaf man who had recently graduated from the Paris school to help him establish the first permanent American school for the deaf—the American Asylum at Hartford, Connecticut. The deaf man, Clerc, taught Gallaudet Old Signed French and then the two men began adapting that particular sign language to the English grammar. Eventually, the influence of the Old Signed French began mixing with the influence of the indigenous language that was already being used by deaf people in places such as Martha’s Vineyard. The end result was what is now called American Sign Language.
Today, the percentage of words that are shared between American Sign Language and French Sign Language is approximately 58 percent. Modern British Sign Language and American Sign Language, however, have no similarities whatsoever.
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