Classroom Bases Experience

Georgia State University

Applied Linguistics
Fall 10
37.5 hours
Jonathan Shive
For my classroom-based experience for Fall 2010 I taught as an instructor at
Georgia Perimeter Colleges Sign Language Interpreter Program. . This course was ASL
Narrative and Discourse, SLIP 1911 and its accompanying lab SLIP 1911L. The class
met for two hours and forty-five minutes, twice a week for 15 weeks. The courses
objectives continue to develop receptive and expressive American Sign Language skills.
This course is an advanced study of expressive and receptive American Sign Language
narratives and conversation. It is designed to provide a strong foundation for future
interpreting courses. The primary focus is on more complex grammatical features,
expanded vocabulary and language fluency. This course is taught predominately in ASL
without voice.
Through class activities and outside assignments, vocabulary is expanded and
skills focused on. A focus on form in more complex, finer points of grammar is
introduced. The course had three main texts: Grammatical Aspects of ASL, American
Sign Language: A teachers resource text on grammar and culture and Semantic
Awareness Tests. The first a work book with 10 units, each focusing on a different
grammar feature. Students are required to complete the assignments, which include
creating video recordings of their work for submission. American Sign Language: A
teachers resource text on grammar and culture text is where I drew lecture material and
discussion points for the class. The Semantic Awareness Tests are essential video drills
focusing on the semantic meaning of ASL signs and its correlations to English terms and

meanings. For example, the work shot in ASL is signed in three different ways: a small
glass of liquor, the action of a gun firing, and the exhausted feeling after strenuous work.
So students get into the meaning of signs and their application.
The course is main over arching goal it to get students in the air, providing
ongoing opportunities to use the language and expand their receptive and expressive
skills. This is accomplished by providing dialogue, discussion, and story telling activities,
getting them communications. We also focused on discourse mapping, where would sign
a story, given factual information about a topic, or discuss a current event. After I had
completed my story, I would have the students make a graphic organizer/ discourse map
of the piece and then check it with partners to see if main points were retained. I have
seen in my course work at GSU that providing comprehensible input is critical for
language development and I have really been trying to implement that into my teaching
philosophy. We do focus on form, yet that is usually related to lectures and after we have
worked on the feature in a communicative fashion. I would typically then provide some
sort of prompt for the students to discuss. I pair them up in dyads or other times triads.
The lab course had three components, the Grammatical Aspects, video recordings,
as well as required interpreter observations. They are required to observe working
interpreters in 5 different settings; be it educations, community, freelance, medical or
professional. Students needed to complete a form outlining the demands and controls
interpreters experience and provide critical thinking reflections of their experience. They
are also required to do a research report. They must pick a specific ASL language feature
to delve into, and report it back to the class. A written report is turned in to me and an
English presentation is given to the class.

The course lasted 15 weeks and I have 9 students in this class. This is a perfect
class size. I can give individual attention to each student and there are enough of them to
make group work succeed. I feel the course objectives were achieved in this class.
Reviewing students video recordings and major projects, I can see from the beginning to
the end, marked improvement. This is one reason I really like teaching this course.
Students are at a level with many interlanguage connections are made, the light bulb is
continually coming on and students get excited about their own success. I think providing
so much communication and chances to work out the language during communication
settings is a benefit to their learning.
My coordinator has created a course evaluation that the whole department is using
for our own feedback. There is no numbering system on the evaluation, only places for
students to write in comments. They are anonymous and I think beneficial. I received
mine last week and feel the class was a success. One area to grow in was the use of book
material. The American Sign Language: text was not lectured on as much as the students
wanted. For next years class I think I will begin to create chapter Power Point
presentations. I have recently been working with different presentation software and feel
this will be a perfect change for me to learn me.