Dr. Lisa Battaglino     
Bridgewater State College                  CD 231    3 Credits

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders                                                        

E-Mail: lbattaglino@bridgew.edu                                                                

Phone: (508) 531-1226

CD 231 Sign Language I

Course Description: 

An orientation to American Sign Language.  This course will review the history and development of manual communication and deaf culture in the United States.  Focus on contact signing and American Sign Language through vocabulary development and beginning conversational skills.

Text: 

Signing, How to Speak with Your Hands, Elaine Costello, Random House, Toronto, 1995

Teaching Methods Employed in the Course:

Active participation is a necessary component of the course.  Daily signing will be required.  Students receive a list of “mini-projects” that provide for active participation.  Small group discussions may follow lectures and video presentations.

Beliefs on Philosophy about Teaching:

This course is a relevant introduction to the signs, topics and issues involved in American Sign Language. Surveying these topics and issues provides participants with the necessary concepts and considerations for further study and improved signing.

Goals:

Essential and important goals for this course are:

1.                   Gaining factual knowledge (terminology, classifications, methods, trends).

2.                   Learning fundamental principles, generalizations, or theories.

3.                   Learning how professionals in this field go about the process of gaining new knowledge.

4.                   Developing a set of basic signs to be used in conversing with others in American Sign Language.

Outcomes:

1.                 To develop the student’s basic conversational sign language skills through exposure to and practice with finger spelling and conceptually based sign vocabulary and syntax.

2.                 To develop the student’s awareness of deaf culture.

3.                 To develop the student’s knowledge of the normal and disordered process of hearing

4.                 To develop the student’s knowledge of educational issues surrounding children with hearing loss.

Assessment:

Assessment for this course is primarily based upon three performance and reading examinations and several small sign language performance requirements.