Course Overview 

Dear Student,

Welcome to the course "Ghanaian Sign Language for Communication" (GhSL). This course introduces you to the fundamentals of GhSL, with a special focus on deaf culture. Emphasis will be placed on developing your basic expressive and receptive skills. You will learn how to apply the five key parameters of GhSL for communication effectively. By the end of the course, you will gain an understanding of the relevance of GhSL to health students and professionals. Additionally, you will deepen your knowledge of disability and impairment concepts, and learn the most appropriate terminology for individuals with hearing loss.

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

1. Differentiate between disability, impairment, and handicap.

2. Outline some relevance of GSL to health students and professionals.

3. Discuss Deaf culture and Deaf identity and its role in GSL learning.

4. Relate the history of GSL and Deaf Education.

5. Recognize all the manual alphabet in GSL and fingerspell appropriately.

6. Comprehend and respond with grammatical accuracy to expressive GSL and demonstrate cultural awareness.

There are no special prerequisites for this course. However, success requires consistent attendance. Like mathematics and other cumulative subjects, learning GhSL builds progressively—each lesson serves as a foundation for the next. Missing classes or falling behind in your studies can hinder your ability to develop the essential skills for a strong grasp of GhSL.

To keep up with the course, be sure to obtain a copy of Introduction to Sign Language by your course facilitator, Richard Adade, and ensure you have access to all required lessons and exercise videos. Also, submit all your videos and other assignments on time.

You will learn 10 structured lessons, GhSL numerals, the GhSL manual alphabet, and concepts of deafness and sign languages. Receptive assessments will be based on these lessons, including mid-semester and end-of-semester exams. However, you will also acquire additional signs (vocabulary) as I interact with you in class. To expand your vocabulary further, you can explore more signs from the book Introduction to Sign Language and by watching sign language videos on YouTube.

The book Introduction to Sign Language is designed to complement the lesson videos on YouTube and serve as a quick reference guide for any signs or words learned during the course, as well as others you may wish to learn. To quickly find a sign or word, refer to the "Index" section on pages 170–176, where you can locate the exact page that contains the sign you're looking for.

The book is divided into three sections:

• The first section covers the introduction to sign language, the manual alphabet, GhSL numerals, common handshapes, and fingerspelling rules.

• The second section consists of 10 structured lessons. Each word in the lessons is illustrated with images and captions explaining how to perform the sign. At the beginning of each lesson, you'll find stated objectives (outcomes). Be sure to achieve all of the outlined objectives before moving on to the next lesson. Some objectives can be met by following the "tips" provided in each lesson.

Additionally, all lessons, except Lesson 1, include practice sentences with a suggested word order for executing them in GhSL. Ensure that you can sign all practice examples (A, B, and C). If you forget any signs while practicing, don't hesitate to refer back to the book before continuing.

To track your progress, exercises are included at the end of each lesson. You can assess yourself by watching the corresponding exercise videos on YouTube (refer to the table of links for each exercise) and selecting your answers from the options provided (A–D) in the book. After completing the video, you can check your answers on pages 168 and 169 and grade yourself. As you gain confidence, you may prefer to write your answers in full rather than choose from the options provided.

You will be assessed in two domains: receptive and expressive skills. Tentatively, your receptive skills will be evaluated through quizzes (worth 15%) and a mid-semester exam (worth 15%), which will count as continuous assessment. Your expressive skills will account for 20% of the total score. For this, you will produce videos in GhSL and submit them. You are required to join your designated Classroom for video submissions, where deadlines for these submissions will be provided.

The End of Semester Examination will constitute 50% of your total score.

The format provided here is tentative. Please refer to the official End of Semester Examination format, which is mostly available a week to the exams, for the exact details of your course 

Since this course is conducted online, always ensure you have a strong internet connection. Some of your assessments will be conducted via Microsoft Forms (MF). You can test its compatibility with your device by clicking here.

Regarding the use of MF, please note that once you open an assessment, you must complete it before leaving the page. If you leave and reopen the page, your previous work will be lost, and the questions will appear in a different order due to reshuffling. If you encounter difficulties submitting your work due to a weak internet connection, do not panic. Stay calm, ensure your connection is stable, and then reload the page. On an Android phone, you can do this by clicking the three dots in the top-right corner of your browser and selecting the "reload" option.