Canadian Hearing Services (CHS) offers workplaces customized classes for employees who want to learn American Sign Language (ASL) so they can communicate more effectively with customers and co-workers.
We provide special contracts and schedules to accommodate the needs of your workplace and the different skill levels of your employees.
What is American Sign Language (ASL)?
American Sign Language (ASL) is the language of most Deaf Canadians. It is a visual language made up of specific gestures (signs), hand shapes and facial expressions. It has its own unique grammatical rules and sentence structure.
About CHS sign language classes
Our qualified Deaf instructors use Signing Naturally, a sign language curriculum developed at Vista Community College in Berkeley, California that teaches both ASL and Deaf culture to help your employees better understand the communication needs of the Deaf community.
A “no-voice” teaching method is used to reinforce the learning experience. Participants learn through classroom instruction and role-play, as well as through videotext and a workbook. The videotext and workbook supplement reinforce the classroom instruction, providing an opportunity to review, practice and retain what has been taught.
We have eight courses ranging from beginner to advanced:
• Beginner courses are designed to introduce students to ASL. Concepts discussed relate to people, places and things within the immediate environment. Students learn to handle basic, everyday communication such as exchanging information, identifying/describing others, and asking for clarification.
• Intermediate courses emphasize language in context: locating things, learning numeracy, making requests with inflection, talking about life events and family histories, describing objects and having social conversation.
• Advanced courses focus on building narrative skills, moving from an informal to a more formal presentation, and on developing conversational skills used in everyday discussion.
Giving your employees an opportunity to learn ASL will:
• create an accessible workplace for people who are Deaf or hard of hearing
• improve your customer service levels
• allow your business to reach new markets
How to arrange ASL classes in your workplace. Contact us:
Phone: 1-866-518-0000
Email: asleducation@chs.ca
If you are interested in taking ASL classes as an individual, visit Learn American Sign Language to register for a scheduled class.