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Undergraduate ASL Fall 2024 Courses

ASL 101 American Sign Language I  
 T his three-credit course is a basic introduction to American Sign Language (ASL) for students with no previous knowledge. Students will be introduced to the language functions/features of mastering the ASL grammar at a basic expressive and receptive level for functional communication purposes. An introduction to cultural and historical aspects of ASL and the Deaf Community is also included.

ASL 102 American Sign Language II
This three-credit course is a continuation of ASL 101. Further study of the language with more emphasis on receptive and expressive conversational skills. Includes readings of research studies relevant to lectures.

ASL 201 American Sign Language III 
 This course is designed to build on and apply ASL conversational skills and cultural behaviors acquired from previous courses, ASL 101 and ASL 102 to a functional level that includes new expanded conversational and narrative skills using both concrete and abstract concepts. The course incorporates interactive activities, which will encourage a natural language environment using the target language, ASL by giving students situations, which allow them to concrete on the purpose rather than the mechanics of the conversation.

ASL 202 American Sign Language IV
This course is a continuation of ASL 201. Includes some introduction to linguistic structure, especially depicting verbs (classifier handshapes), temporal sequencing and aspect, and conversational regulators. Continued emphasis on cultural and historical aspects in relation to the evolution of language and language usage.

ASL 301 American Sign Language V 
This course is a continuation of ASL 20200 (5th in sequence of courses in ASL). Features of Level 5 are expanded student discourse, advanced ASL structure and vocabulary, role shift variations, formal storytelling, text analysis and formal/informal presentations.
3.000 Credit hours

ASL 361 The Structure of ASL I: Phonology and Morphology
Linguistic study of ASL, including the following: phonological features of individual signs (hand shape, orientation, location, movement) and how those features shift when placed in a stream of signs; morphological features of signs, including compounding and lexicalization of finger spelled words; grammar, focusing on typical word orders found in ASL sentences; meaning of signs and how those meanings have shifted over time (as well as how those meanings shift for particular dialects); and typical pragmatic features of conversation in ASL. Knowledge of ASL is required.
3.000 Credit hours

ASL 390 Undergraduate Research In ASL 
This course is designed to allow for the investigation of topics related to the linguistic structure of ASL, populations of ASL language learners, and sub-populations of the Deaf Community at the undergraduate level. Permission of instructor required.

 

Non-Credit Professional Courses in ASL and Deaf Culture

Learn foundational skills in American Sign Language (ASL) to become a more effective and expressive ASL communicator with Purdue’s online ASL Certificate courses! The ASL 1 & ASL 2 courses provide a basic introduction for students with no previous knowledge of the language, and the American Deaf Culture (ADC) course is taught and English and can be taken at the same time as or separately from the ASL language courses. For more information: