Adult Basic Education (G.E.D)
G.E.D. Study Program GEDT 040
This course is designed to assist you in preparing to write the G.E.D Grade 12 equivalency exam. Five areas of study include: Writing Skills, Social Studies, Science, Interpreting Literature and Arts and Mathematics. Provincial test fee is payable to the Ministry of Education in Victoria and must be received 28 days prior to the test date.
American Sign Language
Program Components:
- Visual and Gestural Base
- Prep I, II, III, IV
- Provincial Mastery Exam: Prep
- Basic I, II, III, IV
- Provincial Mastery Exam: Basic
- Intermediate I, II, III, IV
The program uses the "Vista Signing Naturally" curriculum. Four Preparatory levels correspond with Book I and four Basic levels correspond with Book II. Four Intermediate levels are required to complete the full program. For admission requirements for the Thompson Rivers University Interpreters Program, please call (250) 828-5297.
The total number of hours required to complete each level is 120 hours, divided into four 30-hour courses. Regular attendance and successful completion of all assignments is required. It is necessary to pass a Provincial Mastery Exam at the completion of each level before registering in the next level. There is an additional charge for each exam.
Visual & Gestural Base
This course offers individuals an introduction to the realm of visual communication in preparation for learning American Sign Language. Use a series of games and learning activities, students will develop essential visual perception and freedom of physical movement in the head, face, neck and torso critical to the development of signing skills. In addition, students will have an opportunity to convey a range of emotive utterances visually.
ASL Prep I - SIGN 060 (30 hours)
This course provides an introduction to American Sign Language (ASL) for individuals who have little or no knowledge of the language. Based on principles of second language acquisition, students will learn to recognize various visual grammatical features of the language and develop beginning level vocabulary permitting them to engage in basic introductions, the exchange of personal information and some ability to talk about the student's surroundings. In addition, students will learn how to form questions and learn how to give basic directions. Students will learn basic information regarding the Deaf community, the impact of handedness on signing, and the use of visual three dimension space in ASL.
Prerequisite: Visual Gestural Base
ASL Prep II - SIGN 061 (30 hours)
Building on ASL Prep I, this course provides further introduction to American Sign Language (ASL) for individuals who have little or no knowledge of the language. Students will begin to discuss personal information, including where they live, family information and various physical activities. Students will begin to refine visual perception to assist with receptive skills in the language. They will be introduced to spatial referencing, contrasting structures, the expression of time and the formulation of negative statements. In addition, students will be introduced to the concept of fingerspelling and some rules for social interaction.
Prerequisite: ASL Prep I
ASL Prep III - SIGN 062 (30 hours)
This course beings with a cumulative review of Prep I & II, including norms for getting attention, understanding the role of name signs, negotiating a signing environment, asking for repetition, meeting others, and gaining basic information about the daily lives of Deaf people. Building on Prep II, students will begin to make simple requests, give directions and learn how to identify other people. Numbers will be introduced and students will develop a basic understanding of various types of verbs.
Prerequisite: ASL Prep II
ASL Prep IV - SIGN 063 (30 hours)
Students will learn greater detail for discussing families, including occupations and ages. The concept of role shifting will be introduced and applied to descriptions of others. Students will begin to discuss daily routines, including clock numbers and activities. In addition, students will be provided with a brief history of Deaf people in the US and Canada, learn rules for interrupting conversations, and other rules for social interaction. This course will end with a cumulative review of Prep I - IV.
Prerequisite: ASL Prep III
Provincial Mastery Exam: Prep
To determine readiness for next level.
ASL Basic I - SIGN 064 (30 hours)
Building on ASL grammatical and linguistic skills from Prep I - IV, students will develop a number of linguistics skills, including: describing people and locations (using locative and descriptive classifiers), making and responding to complaints, suggestions and requests. Students will strengthen skills in opening conversations, asking clarifying questions, making corrections and confirming information. Grammatical focus will be placed on topic-comment structure, use of non-dominant hand for referents, questions forms, recurring, continuous temporal forms, verb inflection, role shifting, conditionals and several numbering systems.
Prerequisite: Pass on Provincial Mastery Exam-Prep
ASL Basic II (30 hours)
Building on skills developed in ASL Basic I, students will increase their ability to incorporate proper phrasing and pausing in ASL utterances, use descriptive and locative classifiers, apply the use of certain numbering systems, and use possessive forms correctly. Instrumental classifiers will be introduced, as well as money numbers and lower facial grammatical markers. Students will be expected to incorporate all linguistic and grammatical features learned to date in longer monologues, sharing information such as family history and major life event.
Prerequisite: ASL Basic I
ASL Basic III (30 hours)
Building on skills developed in ASL Basic II, students will develop greater confidence in their ability to ask and give fairly lengthy responses to questions in ASL, incorporating linguistic and grammatical features learned to date. They will be introduced to element classifiers, additional numbering systems, and the use of durative aspect. They will be able to gain, direct and maintain visual attention, control the pace of a conversation, interrupt and resume a conversation, and confirm information appropriately.
Prerequisite: ASL Basic II
ASL Basic IV (30 hours)
This course will review and reinforce all skills developed from Prep I to Basic III, in preparation for provincial mastery exam. All linguistic functions and grammatical features will be integrated into a comprehensive application to more complex monologues and dialogues. There will be particular focus on the review and use of classifiers, on facial grammatical markers and affective markers.
Prerequisite: ASL Basic III
Provincial Mastery Exam: Basic
To determine readiness for next level.
ASL Intermediate (30 hours)
In this course, students' grammar will be refined and their linguistic abilities expanded. Students will be introduced to the concept of "contact signs" and comparisons will be made between this English-based form of signing and ASL. Focus will be given to topic/comment versus subject-verb-object structure, and to yes/no, and rhetorical-question forms. There will also be a system introduction to advanced fingerspelling and numerical skills critical to emerging intermediate-level signing skills.
Prerequisite: Pass on Provincial Mastery Exam - Basic
ASL Intermediate II (30 hours)
Building on knowledge and skills in ASL Intermediate I, students in this course will focus grammatical refinement on directionality, use of space, and embedded affirmation/negation. Continued comparisons will be made between ASL and contact signing, and students will complete work on advanced fingerspelling and numerical skills. Expressive skills development will focus on continued implementation of expansion techniques, including role shift, 3-D contrasting, and faceting. Using articles on Deaf culture as the stimulus material, students will engage in dialogue and debate during which they will apply the linguistic and grammatical principles mastered to date.
Prerequisite: Intermediate I
ASL Intermediate III (30 hours)
This course will focus on mastery of classifiers, conditionals, and the use of real-time sequencing in text construction. Using several fables, students will interface grammatical and linguistic abilities with emerging exposure to the history of oppression in the Deaf community. Students will develop greater facility in the use of expansion techniques taught in Intermediate II, and will add the techniques of reiteration, explanations with listing or examples, and couching, to maximize effective visual communications in ASL.
Prerequisite: Intermediate II
ASL Intermediate IV (30 hours)
This course will provide a cumulative knowledge and skills review of all major concepts presented in Intermediate I - III, in preparation for students taking the American Sign Language Proficiency Interview (ASLPI).
Prerequisite: Intermediate III
For more information, call Bunny Duggan - 250-828-5290 or e-mail - eduggan@tru.ca