Target group: deaf sign language instructors; deaf people aspiring to become instructors
Prerequisites: courses A1 and A2
Type of course: seminar
Level: intermediate
Language of instruction: German Sign Language
Length: 2 weeks, 7 hours of instruction daily
Total hours: 70
Proportion of independent work: appx. 50%
This seminar is planned to introduce deaf sign language instructors to methods and techniques with which they can plan their own sign language courses. The multi-media course material was developed by deaf specialists from the Center for German Sign Language on the basis of the VISTA concept, and altered to meet the particular cultural and linguistic characteristics of German Sign Language. The course material includes the text book, video and CD-ROM for instructor and students. The various dialects of German Sign Language were taken into consideration. The seminar offers a comprehensive look at the structure, the materials, the didactic concept as well as the actual composition of a German Sign Language course and its realization.
In this seminar the participants will not gather enough experience to plan and realize sign language courses independently. For those participants interested in achieving such a level of knowledge, we recommend participation in the cooperation project B3, designed for experienced sign language researchers who are well-versed in the contents of the courses A1 - A6 as well as B1 and B2. The goal of this project is to achieve an international cooperation over a period of years.
The GSL basic course is divided into 12 lessons. The course material offers lesson plans, exercises and other materials for each lesson. It is designed for beginners and requires no previous GSL knowledge. Previous participation in an NVK course (nonvebal communication), in which the participants learn to use their bodies as an instrument of speech, is highly recommended.
The goal of the GSL basic course is to enable the participants to communicate with sign language as quickly as possible. In order to do so, they must learn not only the signs, but also the behavioral norms and the rules of communication which prevail in the sign language community. For this reason, each lesson is structured around such practical topics as introducing yourself, telling about yourself, exchanging information, explaining where you live, telling about your family, etc.
The GSL basic course also teaches about the sign language community. Video scenes of different situations will illustrate the linguistic and cultural behavior typical for the sign language community. This information will then be expanded upon through discussion, exercises and reading material. For example, the first lesson deals with how to be polite yet unconstrained in the sign language community.
Each of the 12 lessons emphasizes a different linguistic basic function. Each lesson builds upon the topics, the vocabulary and the grammar of the previous lessons. In lessons 1-6, the participants will learn to exchange personal information -- how to sign names, how to sign where you live, how to tell about your family, etc. In the accompanying tutorials, the participants will learn how to introduce someone, how to engage in "small talk" and how to react in a sign language environment. New functions will be introduced in lessons 7-12. They will enable the participants to expand the scope of discussion topics. The participants will learn to sign not only about themselves, but also about other persons and events. They will learn to give directions and to formulate requests. In this way the participants will expand their communicative abilities more and more. Each of the lessons is structured as follows: