Exploring South African Sign Language and South African Deaf Culture

This self-paced course, expertly curated by linguist Prof Anne Baker, introduces you to conversational SASL, delves into aspects of Deaf culture and enriches both your personal and professional life. Join us as we learn about Deaf culture and gain a deeper understanding of its impact on Deaf and non-Deaf communities. Then move on to learning SASL fundamentals and how to form basic sentences for meaningful interactions with Deaf people. Throughout this gradual introduction of SASL structure, the main objective will be to facilitate communication. The flexible, self-paced approach lets you tailor your learning to suit your schedule. Content is structured into the following four comprehensive, segmented lessons to help you plan your learning effectively: Orientation and greetings: This lesson emphasises the visual nature of sign languages and covers attentive observation, sign production, and greetings vocabulary. Using the narratives of two SASL educators, it also offers insights into Deaf culture. Introduction and self-expression: In this lesson, you will enhance your conversation skills with fingerspelling, sign names, and family and hobby vocabulary. You will also explore the concept of hearing privilege. Numerals, days, appointments and interpreters: Learn scheduling and appointment signs, and gain a better understanding of the vital role of interpreters in facilitating communication between the Deaf and hearing communities. Descriptive skills and literary appreciation: This lesson will teach you SASL signs for describing people. A look at SASL literature will offer you further insight into Deaf culture. Each lesson is subdivided into sections, along with estimated timeframes to aid your study planning. We recommend adhering to the suggested sequence for optimal learning. Moreover, although you will be completing the course in your own time, we encourage you to maintain a consistent learning pace, as this facilitates memory retention and maximises your progress. All course materials are provided in English with SASL video content. The SASL videos feature individual signs and brief sentences to hone your comprehension skills. You will also practise sign replication, ideally recording yourself while signing and comparing it to the video. At the end of each lesson, a “Test yourself” section affords you an opportunity to gauge your progress. 3b:T

• acquire basic SASL skills to understand and engage in simple conversations;
• learn to observe and use SASL as a visual language, focusing on hand and facial expressions;
• master SASL greetings, learn how to enquire about deaf or hearing status, and share basic personal information in introductory conversations;
• learn how to spell your name using fingerspelling, and to understand others’ spelling;
• learn to convey basic information about family and hobbies in SASL;
• gain the skills to make appointments using SASL, incorporating time, days of the week, and months;
• learn to describe individuals in a simple, straightforward manner in SASL;
• receive explanations of additional SASL structural aspects as needed, such as constructing negative sentences, forming questions and creating plurals, which will enable adaptive learning;
• develop a deeper appreciation of sign languages, particularly SASL, and the experiences of the Deaf community;
• develop empathy for, and awareness of, the challenges faced by Deaf people due to hearing prejudices;
• learn about the role and functioning of interpreters in conversations between Deaf and hearing people; and
• be exposed to Deaf community literature, including artistic stories and poems in SASL, while gaining insight into its contextual use.