Sign Language Center

Sign Language Center was established to bridge the communication gap between the hearing and the Deaf communities. We create a comfortable and interactive environment. All of our instructors are "Native" Deaf individuals coming from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Our instructors strive to teach our students to have a better understanding about ASL and Deaf culture in a non-competitive, conversational setting. We hope you will join us in for a fun-filled learning experience!

OUR MISSION

To teach, motivate, and empower individuals curious about American Sign Language and Deaf culture. Sign Language Center supports your ASL-learning experience and your desire for human connection, no matter where you are in the world. Sign Language Center was created with all students of all abilities in mind. Our goal is to be a steward of American Sign Language and spread awareness of Deaf Gain concepts -- bridging the gap between the Hearing and the Deaf communities.

The environment at SLC nurtures non-competitive, conversation-driven, and student-centered learning. Our instructors are all Native Deaf individuals who come from a variety of cultural backgrounds. We are proud to be the only Deaf-owned ASL school in the nation. SLC looks forward to signing with you!

OUR CLASSES

In person and Zoom group classes for all levels of learning, one-on-one tutoring sessions, on-site sessions for corporations and large groups, and a variety of workshops. 

Tutoring
Individual tutoring is available for students seeking one on one instruction. Tutoring is also beneficial for students that may miss a class or who want specified lessons.

Corporate Workshops
We provide courses, training or workshops at your place of business. We have worked with Emergency Response teams, Police Officers, Firefighters, EMT’s and so much more!

Workshops
We offer different workshops to help you improve your learning in ASL. Our workshops include Fingerspelling, Deaf History and Deaf Culture and also offer private Tutoring services.

In Person Classes

*NOTE: WE OFFER 7 SEMESTERS PER YEAR. IF YOU DO NOT SEE THE SCHEDULE YOU ARE LOOKING FOR, IT WILL BE POSTED SHORTLY!

Classes are held once a week, for 2 hours. Semesters are 6 weeks long.

LEVEL 1

Level 1 is a 6 week session focusing on the introduction to American Sign Language and Deaf Culture. You will develop a strong basic ASLary (OUR word for vocabulary), syntax, and grammar. You will learn numbers 1-100, visual discrimination, practice fingerspelling and begin to understand the use of space and gestures. You will be introduced to interacting with the Deaf community and begin your journey!

LEVEL 2
Level 2 will build on the foundations you learned in Level 1. You will continue to develop more ASLary. You will learn numbers up to 500. You will continue to focus on visual discrimination, fingerspelling and use of space and gestures. You will also be introduced to grammar;(nouns, direction verbs, Wh/Yes no questions, classifiers and NMS (non manual signals). You will be introduced to Deaf slang and idioms.

LEVEL 3
Level 3 will take your language to a more advanced level. We will focus on the importance of storytelling. We will learn more about Deaf history. NMS, ASLary and grammar will be explored in greater depth.

LEVEL 4
Level 4 will focus on using your conversational skills and advancing your proficiency of ASL related to a variety of topics. You will start identifying countries, learn about the basics of money, travel, weather and current events. You will use classifiers to tell stories and focus on grammatical features of ASL.

LEVEL 5
Level 5 combines your knowledge of ASL from Levels 1 to 4. You will continue to expand ASLary and work on both expressive and receptive skills. You will learn about occupations, role shifting, classifiers, numbers, and Deaf culture.

LEVEL 6
Level 6 will be putting your visual prowess to the test by utilizing all the skills you learned from ASL Levels 1-5. We will incorporate ASL media such as films, vlogs, Deaf humor, current events, news, politics and social events into our curriculum. By this level students will have developed greater fluency in expressive signing, and developed confidence in receptive skills.

CONVERSATIONAL

This is a 6 week course, ONGOING. A & B are natural advancements in fluency and depending on your readiness a student will move up a level. Conversational classes use a “natural” conversation mode in order to increase fluency. Heavy concentration will be placed on telling stories that are clear, coherent, interesting and culturally appropriate.

Conversation A:
For those who finished level six will begin a more unstructured curriculum. Join this level to start feeling comfortable signing socially, chatting about various topics while being guided on expressive & receptive skills. *Needs approval by instructor to move up to B.

Conversation B:
This class is a more advanced version of level A. This class is for signers who already have a grasp on the language and want to gain more confidence with fluency, socialize more with native Deaf signers and work on specific skills.

For further details and information, please visit their website or contact them.