American Sign Language (ASL)

American Sign Language 1

Course Description: ASL 1 is an introduction to American Sign Language (ASL). Includes basic grammar, vocabulary, fingerspelling, numbers, and cultural information related to the Deaf Community.

Lessons 1–15: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |

American Sign Language 2

Course Description: ASL 2 is a continuation of ASL 1. This course is designed to continue development of American Sign Language expressive and receptive skills, grammar, vocabulary, cultural awareness, and related terminology.

Lessons 16–30: 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |

American Sign Language 3

Course Description: ASL 3 is a continuation of ASL 2. This course is designed to continue development of American Sign Language expressive and receptive skills, grammar, vocabulary, cultural awareness, and related terminology.

Lessons 31–45: 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 |

American Sign Language 4

Course Description: ASL 4 is a continuation of ASL 3. This course is designed to continue development of American Sign Language expressive and receptive skills, grammar, vocabulary, cultural awareness, and related terminology.

Lessons 46–60: 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 |

Practice cards

ASL 1 Practice Cards (.doc)
ASL 2 Practice Cards (.doc)
ASL 4 Practice Cards (.doc)
ASL 3 Practice Cards (.doc)

Workbooks

Level 1 Workbook (.rtf)
Level 2 Workbook (.rtf)
Level 3 Workbook (.rtf)
Level 4 Workbook (.rtf)

Playlists

ASL 1 playlist
ASL 2 playlist
ASL 3 playlist
ASL 4 playlist

Powerpoints

Quizzes

ASL University Sites:

Fingerspelling Practice (asl.ms)
Fingerspelling (asl.gs)
Numbers Practice (asl.bz)

Notes:

School districts and Homeschool instructors considering the ASL University curriculum sometimes ask for an overview of topics or the "theme" of each lesson. Although some lessons do coalesce loosely around a theme, the ASL University curriculum is deliberately not a sequence of topic-based vocabulary lists. The curriculum is organized by frequency of real-world use.

Allow me to share a bit of perspective from an article in Perspectives in Education and Deafness that I also include as part of Lesson 1:

"There are more than 500,000 words in the English language, but a person who masters only 250 words will recognize more than two-thirds of all words shown in television captions -- provided the 250 words are those that are most frequently used. Equally dramatic, a beginning reader could be taught just 10 words: the, you, to, a, I, and, of, in, it, that -- and then recognize more than one out of every five words. Mastery of the top 79 words means being able to read half of all words captioned." (Source: Perspectives in Education and Deafness, Volume 16, Number 1, September/October 1997)

It is very hard for humans to resist the urge to want to learn a list of colors, a list of food, or a list of pretty much anything -- or in other words "topic-based" lists. The problem is – learning topic-based lists actually slows down a student’s journey toward being able to hold real life conversations in the most efficient learning path possible.

The basis of the Lifeprint curriculum isn't a list of topics but rather the basis of Lifeprint is "frequency of use."

Thus the real topics in the Lifeprint curriculum are:

Lesson 1: "very frequently used concepts,"
Lesson 2: "very frequently used concepts but slightly less frequently than Lesson 1.”
Lesson 3: "very frequently used concepts but slightly less frequently than Lesson 2.”
Lesson 4: "very frequently used concepts but slightly less frequently than Lesson 3.”
Lesson 5: and so forth through to lesson 60 and on into the vocabulary expansion series.

I’m not joking.

Again, to be clear: The lessons are not intended to be topic based. Even though some of the lessons can be considered based on a "topic” that is not important. Teaching a series of topic lists is not the goal since "topic based" teaching in some ways slows down the acquisition of language (compared to a frequency of use approach).

For example, the sign for "cousin” is not introduced in "Lesson 2” along with brother and sister even though ostensibly Lesson 2 could be labeled as the "family” lesson. The sign for cousin is introduced in lesson 29. Why? The reason why is because we don’t talk about cousins as much as we discuss most of the concepts in lessons 3 through 28. If we give "cousin” space in an early lesson it takes away space that could have been invested in a more frequently used concept – which would slow down the student’s ability to quickly start having meaningful conversations.

The overall concept here is that in ASL 1 students learn and master 300 of the most frequently used signed concepts – not grouped by topic -- but rather introduced by frequency of real world usage.

In addition to those concepts students also learn fingerspelling, numbers, some culture, some history, a lot of terminology, and a significant amount of interconnecting information. By interconnecting information I’m referring to how one sign relates to another sign and/or delimitations of signs such as the fact that the sign commonly glossed as "BED” can not be used to refer to the bed of a truck nor a flower bed.

Students also absorb a large amount of peripheral vocabulary through watching the instructional videos where a student model interacts with the instructor, asks questions, and responds organically to questions. These responses typically aren't codified into the curriculum but the information is real, beneficial for learning, and demonstrative of real-world interaction which is crucial for progressing toward true communicative competence.

I could go on and on describing why "frequency” beats topic-based learning but really if someone doesn’t believe and get it (understand the efficacy of it) no amount of explaining is going to satisfy the person if they want to see a series of lists: Lesson 1: "classroom signs” Lesson 2: "family” Lesson 3: "places” ... yadda, yadda.

So rather than go on justifying frequency based instruction I’ll just share with you my favorite succinct but representative comment from the comment section under the Lesson 1 video at my YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/DaMjr4AfYA0 )
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"OMG...this is working. I'm getting it quickly. How do you do that?”
-- Trenell Taylor (ASL learner)
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If the Lifeprint curriculum needs to be packaged a certain way to satisfy a local administrator, sure those using the curriculum can choose labels for the lessons. However it is the "frequency” approach that results in the OMG reactions.

Warm regards,

William G. Vicars, EdD
Professor, American Sign Language

It is common for school districts interested in purchasing the Lifeprint curriculum to want an overview of the topics covered in the curriculum.
Here is a sample of how to do that for ASL1 and ASL 2, however, please do see my notes above.

ASL University Curriculum ASL 1: Unit 1: Lesson 1: Introduction Lesson 2: Family Lesson 3: Places Lesson 4: Feelings Lesson 5: Actions

Unit 2: Lesson 6: Colors & Time Lesson 7: Food Lesson 8: Clothes Lesson 9: Things Lesson 10: Animals

Unit 3: Lesson 11: Questions Lesson 12: Routines Lesson 13: School Lesson 14: Seasons Lesson 15: Careers

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ASL 2: Unit 4: Lesson 16: Activities Lesson 17: Eating Lesson 18: Travel Lesson 19: Feelings Lesson 20: Descriptions

Unit 5: Lesson 21 : Working Lesson 22 : Money Lesson 23 : Academics Lesson 24: Interactions Lesson 25: Directions Unit 6: Lesson 26: Outdoors Lesson 27: Cooking |Lesson 28: Clothing Lesson 29: Doing Lesson 30: Devices

ASL University Lessons