IN PERSON CLASSES
*NOTE: WE OFFER 7 SEMESTERS PER YEAR. IF YOU DO NOT SEE THE SCHEDULE YOU ARE LOOKING FOR, IT WILL BE POSTED SHORTLY!
Don't know your level? Email us at contact@signlanguagecenter.com to set up a placement screening. Cost is $20.
Classes are held once a week, for 2 hours. Semesters are 6 weeks long.
LEVEL 1
Level 1 is a 6 week session focusing on the introduction to American Sign Language and Deaf Culture. You will develop a strong basic ASLary (OUR word for vocabulary), syntax, and grammar. You will learn numbers 1-100, visual discrimination, practice fingerspelling and begin to understand the use of space and gestures. You will be introduced to interacting with the Deaf community and begin your journey!
LEVEL 2
Level 2 will build on the foundations you learned in Level 1. You will continue to develop more ASLary. You will learn numbers up to 500. You will continue to focus on visual discrimination, fingerspelling and use of space and gestures. You will also be introduced to grammar;(nouns, direction verbs, Wh/Yes no questions, classifiers and NMS (non manual signals). You will be introduced to Deaf slang and idioms.
LEVEL 3
Level 3 will take your language to a more advanced level. We will focus on the importance of storytelling. We will learn more about Deaf history. NMS, ASLary and grammar will be explored in greater depth.
LEVEL 4
Level 4 will focus on using your conversational skills and advancing your proficiency of ASL related to a variety of topics. You will start identifying countries, learn about the basics of money, travel, weather and current events. You will use classifiers to tell stories and focus on grammatical features of ASL.
LEVEL 5
Level 5 combines your knowledge of ASL from Levels 1 to 4. You will continue to expand ASLary and work on both expressive and receptive skills. You will learn about occupations, role shifting, classifiers, numbers, and Deaf culture.
LEVEL 6
Level 6 will be putting your visual prowess to the test by utilizing all the skills you learned from ASL Levels 1-5. We will incorporate ASL media such as films, vlogs, Deaf humor, current events, news, politics and social events into our curriculum. By this level students will have developed greater fluency in expressive signing, and developed confidence in receptive skills.
CONVERSATIONAL
This is a 6 week course, ONGOING. A & B are natural advancements in fluency and depending on your readiness a student will move up a level. Conversational classes use a “natural” conversation mode in order to increase fluency. Heavy concentration will be placed on telling stories that are clear, coherent, interesting and culturally appropriate.
Conversation A:
For those who finished level six will begin a more unstructured curriculum. Join this level to start feeling comfortable signing socially, chatting about various topics while being guided on expressive & receptive skills. *Needs approval by instructor to move up to B.
Conversation B:
This class is a more advanced version of level A. This class is for signers who already have a grasp on the language and want to gain more confidence with fluency, socialize more with native Deaf signers and work on specific skills.