Department Chairperson - Dr. Gale DeArmin

The ASL Minor pairs with any major.  The ASL minor offers an opportunity to learn American Sign Language (ASL), engage in ASL events with members of the Deaf community, and to gain insight into the values, norms, and traditions of a linguistic minority. 

Goal

The goal of the ASL minor is to provide students with an understanding of Deaf Culture and the diversity within the Deaf community; as well as to provide the ASL skills for students to communicate effectively in conversations with members of the Deaf community.

Learning Outcomes

After completing the ASL minor the student will be able to:

• Demonstrate comprehensive mastery of target, content-specific commands, questions, and statements in ASL.

• Demonstrate comprehension and production of regulating behaviors (i.e. attention-getting techniques, turn-taking signals, and others)

• Comprehend short narratives and stories in ASL signed by the professor, Deaf ASL speakers, or ASL videos added by the professor.

• Critique competing perspectives of diverse Deaf Communities in the United States and Canada, ideas, aesthetic traditions, and cultural practices, and its history.  

• Address social and audiological differences as well as past and present educational, rehabilitative, and political philosophies and policies that affect this group

• Produce how the deaf experience transcends race, ethnicity, sociological factors, language variation, sexuality and other factors to bond members of the deaf community and help define Deaf culture.