James Madison University

Instructor: Brenda C. Seal, Ph.D., CCC-SL, CED, CSC Office: 339 Roop, 568-3876

Course Description: This course is intended to improve or advance the communication skills of those students whose core vocabulary and knowledge of deafness has already been established. The course is designed, unlike SPA 420, to focus on communication. Active learning strategies are designed to move the students from entry level to a level of proficiency necessary to communicate with members of the Deaf community or with hearing-impaired individuals whose sign language parallels English. Prerequisite: SPA 420 and/or instructor's permission

Course Objectives: Students should leave this class with:

1. improved skills in reading the sign language of others;

2. improved skills in signing intelligibly to others;

3. improved knowledge of similarities and differences between American Sign Language, Pidgin

Sign Language and Manually Coded English systems

4. improved knowledge of and sensitivity to cultural issues relevant to ASL.

Text: Hoemann, H. (l986). Introduction to American Sign Language.

Requirements: Active attendance (critical in the improvement of discourse skills)

1. Improved performance in the comprehension of videotaped stories, as determined by a written

(pre and post) test (10%)

2. Improved performance in the intelligibility of sign language, as determined on impromptu (pre and

post) presentations (10%)

3. *Satisfactory performance on a midterm and final examination (graduate students will be tested on

material from their readings and research as well as from the material expected of the

undergraduates) (40%)

4. *Satisfactory performance on an experiential project, as determined by the written project

(20%) (guidelines will be given) and by the in-class presentation (20%) (in sign, of course).

5. *A research project or special study in some feature or aspect of sign language (a list of

potential projects or areas of study will be made available).

Grades: 92-l00: A 84-91: B (B+) 76-83: C (B) 68-75: D (C) 67<: F

Honor Code: Students are expected to abide by the JMU Honor Code in all course activities and assignments. Students are also expected to abide by any code of confidentiality imposed by an agency or facility that permits a project to be conducted with their clientelle.

* For graduate students: The research project (#5) accounts for 20% of the total grade; Requirements 3 and 4 are adjusted to 30% each.

Research in sign language is at a pioneering but exciting stage. Most of the publications on research in sign language is offered through Sign Language Studies, American Annals of the Deaf, and occasionally, our research and clinical journals in ASHA. Replicating a study or exploring an experimental or descriptive project is possible. Library study and research is likewise possible, but not necessarily the best way to satisfy the research requirement. Combining the experiential project and the research project is possible and recommended, as long as both requirements are met.

Sample projects include:

analysis of the errors made by students who are beginning signers (using videotaped samples, recording sign features by Stokoe notation, tallying and comparing)

analysis of the rate of signing in students from beginning to end of a course (using videotaped samples, tallying signs used and comparing beginning to end counts)

study of handedness in signing individuals (instructing children--ages 7, 8, 9, l0, ll—in

sign vocabulary using a face-to-face posture and using a side-by-side posture for comparison of handedness differences; would likely involve hearing children in a local elementary school)

analysis of interpreter's variability (using videotaped segments of professional interpreters, especially educational interpreters)

acquisition of sign features in special populations (children or adults with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, learning disabilities, aphasia)

any topic of interest that can be converted to a research question.

Projects must be written in APA style; introduction, method, results, and discussion. Joint projects are possible; i.e., all graduate students may work on the same project.