ASL Linguistics Track
This track is a good option for students who already have some expertise in ASL or who wish to learn more about the language and culture of ASL. This track enables students to gain at least an intermediate level of proficiency in ASL while introducing them to deaf culture and the linguistics of ASL.
The study of ASL Linguistics requires some familiarity with ASL itself and therefore students in this track must complete two years of language instruction in ASL. The first year of language instruction satisfies the language requirement of the College of Liberal Arts. The second year of language instruction is a requirement of the major.
Core courses:
- LING 200 Language, Society and the Mind --OR-- LING 201 Language Diversity in the USA
- LING 300 Introduction to Descriptive Linguistics
- ASL 370 Deaf Culture
- ASL 375/LING 375 History of Sign Language
ASL Focus (15 credit hours):
The ASL Linguistics track expects students to concentrate their coursework in areas that focus on ASL and on the linguistics of ASL. To that end, students in this track choose five courses from the list of courses below that allow students to focus on the linguistics of ASL with at least two of those courses coming from the sub-specializations list.
ASL sub-specialization courses (6 credit hours):
- ASL 351/LING 351 Linguistics of American Sign Language
- LING 352/ASL 352 Sociolinguistics and Deaf Communities
- ASL 306 Classifiers
- ASL 401 Special Topics in ASL
- LING 415 Sociolinguistics
- LING 450 Language Families (when the focus is on signed languages)
The remaining courses in the ASL Focus category can come either from additional sub-specialization courses (above) or from other courses below. In these courses, students will have an opportunity to incorporate ASL into their coursework.
Additional ASL Language & Linguistics courses (9 credit hours):
- ASL 230 Numbering systems of ASL
- ASL 307 Masterpieces of the Deaf World
- ASL 320A/ASL 320B Advanced ASL I & II
- ASL 400 Advanced fingerspelling
- LING 320i Language, Gender, Power
- LING 405 Introduction to Phonological Theories
- LING 408 Introduction to Syntactic Theory
- LING 417 Language Contact
- LING 420 Introduction to Morphology
- LING 426 Gender, Culture & Language
- LING 430 Grammatical Structures (where appropriate)
- LING 440 Topics in Linguistics (where appropriate)
- Additional courses are allowed with prior approval of the Undergraduate Studies Coordinator
Language requirement (6 credit hours):
- ASL 220A Intermediate ASL I
- ASL 220B Intermediate ASL II
(ASL 220A/B is the second year of ASL instruction. ASL 120A/B is the prerequisite)