ASL 102 Lesson Plan
Course Overview
Ten dialogs introduce over 200 new ASL signs. The dialogs cover common phrases used to talk about the family and relatives, terminology popular in the Deaf community, and common means of communicating with a Deaf person including the use of a TTY which allows Deaf people to have conversations over a phone line. The basic ASL course dialogs cover a wide range of ASL sentence structures that will help beginning signers communicate more comfortably in ASL. Information about the lives of people in the Deaf community is presented in each of the ten lessons of our basic ASL course. Topics covered include Deaf people from different countries communicating in sign language with one another, truths and misconceptions about lipreading, hearing loss, strategies Deaf people use to get someone’s attention, closed captioning in theaters, hearing dogs, how parts of a sign can be altered so that the meaning of a sign changes, and a popular Deaf joke.
Lesson Overview
| Lesson | Title / Theme | Dialog | Grammar | Vocabulary | Culture |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lesson 1 | Talking about your family | Asking questions about someone’s family. | Noun/adjective structures: Placement of numbers. Negation. Question seeking information | Immediate family signs. Numbers. | How do Deaf people learn ASL? |
| Lesson 2 | More about the family | Describing where someone lives. | Pointing in space (indexic referencing). Topic/comment sentence. | Signs related to where someone lives. Pronouns. | How do Deaf people from different countries talk to each other if countries have different sign languages? |
| Lesson 3 | What the family does | Talking about a profession. | Pointing in space. Topic/comment sentence. Simple sentence. | Verb + person marker. Directional verb-sign. | Why don’t Deaf people just lipread instead of signing? |
| Lesson 4 | Relations | Describing the size of one’s family | Topic/comment sentence. Information seeking question. | Signs related to family and relatives. | American Sign Language: Movement of the hand |
| Lesson 5 | Deaf family member | How to correct a misunderstanding in a conversation. | Topic/comment sentence. Noun/adjective technique. Directional verb-sign. Facial clues. | Three directional verb-signs. Signs for relatives. | A word about hearing loss. |
| Lesson 6 | Communicating in signs and other ways | Conversation about the use of a TTY | Topic/comment sentence. Simple sentence. Complex sentence. | TTY related signs. | What is a TTY? |
| Lesson 7 | How to communicate with a Deaf person | Conversation about signing and fingerspelling. | Conditional sentence. Time line. Topic/comment sentence. | Age. Conditional sign SUPPOSE. | Attention getting behavior in the Deaf community |
| Lesson 8 | More signs from the Deaf community | Questions for talking about the Deaf community. | Rhetorical question. Use of the sign FINISH. | ASL signs common in discussions about the Deaf community | Captioning in movie theaters. |
| Lesson 9 | Talking about transportation | Transportation related conversation. | Topic/comment sentence. Negation. Simple sentence. Directional verb-sign. | Transportation related signs. Negative incorporation. | Deaf joke: The train trip. |
| Lesson 10 | Until next time | Talking about someone who didn’t show up as expected. | Negation. Simple sentence. Facial clues. | Negative signs. | Hearing dogs used by Deaf people |
Lesson Organization
Each lesson is based on seven easy steps:
- Learning the Signs
There is a dialog between two people in each lesson. You are shown how to sign each ASL sign used in the dialog. - Creating Sentences
Each dialog is separated into sentences. A clear description is given of how the sentences are translated from English to ASL. You are shown how to sign each sentence. - The Complete Dialog
You watch and practice a dialog between two Deaf signers. - Additional Signs
Each lesson has additional signs for you to learn that are not in the dialog. - Practice Activities
Practice activities help you exercise your new knowledge of ASL. You translate English sentences to ASL. After you have done this, a single click shows you one way for the signing the sentence in ASL. - Quiz
Take the quiz to find out if you are ready to move on to the next lesson. - Culture Information
Each lesson ends with information about Deaf people and the way they live. This section provides insight and motivation for helping you learn ASL.
Final Exam and Certificate
After completion of the lessons, you can take the final exam for the course to test your newly learned ASL knowledge. Upon successfully passing the final exam, you will earn a certificate of completion. The certificate is available online in digital form. You can print the Signing Online certificate to mark your accomplishment.
Sign Up To Get Started
Whether you are just beginning to take sign language courses and lessons, or you have previously taken courses to be at an advanced level, Signing Online has an online ASL class for you.