American Sign Language (ASL) is estimated to be the third most used language in the United States and its visibility in society is on the rise in recent years. There are roughly 500,000 to 2,000,000 Deaf, DeafBlind, or hard of hearing people in the United States who use ASL as their primary language, and a large number of non-Deaf signers use or learn ASL as a second language. A disproportionate percentage of Deaf people experience socioeconomic disadvantage due to their dual status as members of both a cultural linguistic minority group and a disability group. As a result, there is a broad societal misunderstanding of Deaf, signing people’s minority language and culture—their lived experience—which creates barriers to educational and economic opportunity. While state and federal legislation enables improved civic engagement by Deaf, hard of hearing, and DeafBlind individuals, there is continued need to elevate quality of life, equity, and the rich contributions of the diverse members of the American Deaf communities.
The program offers a wide array of courses as well as volunteer, co-op, and research opportunities to learn from Deaf people's lived experiences through community and industry connections.
This combined major educates students in cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, and the structures of human languages in general and ASL in particular. The curriculum is designed to assist students in acquiring competence in ASL, develop an understanding of the diverse American Deaf communities and Deaf culture, better understand cognitive efforts of interpreters' language transfer, as well as gain insights into various features of spoken language and experience firsthand the principles underlying the spatial organization of discourse required by signed languages. This knowledge and the psychology background from the major provide a foundation for more advanced studies of ASL and interpreting or psychology and Deaf people.
Complete all courses listed below unless otherwise indicated. Also complete any corequisite labs, recitations, clinicals, or tools courses where specified and complete any additional courses needed beyond specific college and major requirements to satisfy graduation credit requirements.
University-Wide Requirements
All undergraduate students are required to complete the University-Wide Requirements.
NUpath Requirements
All undergraduate students are required to complete the NUpath Requirements.
American Sign Language Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| American Sign Language | ||
| AMSL 1101 | Elementary ASL 1 | 4 |
| AMSL 1102 | Elementary ASL 2 | 4 |
| AMSL 2101 | Intermediate ASL 1 | 4 |
| AMSL 2102 | Intermediate ASL 2 | 4 |
| AMSL 3101 | Advanced ASL 1 | 4 |
| Social and Cultural World | ||
| DEAF 1500 | Deaf People in Society | 4 |
| DEAF 2500 | Deaf History and Culture | 4 |
| Linguistics | ||
| LING 1150 | Introduction to Language and Linguistics | 4 |
| DEAF 2700 | ASL Linguistics | 4 |
| Interpreting | ||
| INTP 3500 | The Interpreting Profession | 2 |
| INTP 3510 | Interpreting Inquiry Texts | 4 |
| INTP 3970 | Research Methods for Interpreting and Translation (Research Methods for Interpreting and Translation) | 4 |
Psychology Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Psychology | ||
| PSYC 1101 | Foundations of Psychology | 4 |
| PSYC 2320 | Statistics in Psychological Research | 4 |
| PSYC 3466 | Cognition | 4 |
| Psychology Lab or Directed Study | ||
| Complete one of the following: | 4 | |
| Laboratory in Research Design | ||
| Laboratory in Biological Psychology | ||
| Laboratory in Psycholinguistics | ||
| Laboratory in Cognition | ||
| Laboratory in Social Psychology | ||
| Laboratory in Personality | ||
| Laboratory in Sensation and Perception | ||
| Laboratory in Affective Science | ||
| Laboratory in Life-Span Emotional Development | ||
| Laboratory in Developmental Psychology | ||
| Directed Study Research | ||
| Personal/Social Bases of Behavior (Area A) | ||
| Complete two of the following: | 8 | |
| Personality | ||
| Social Psychology | ||
| Developmental Psychology | ||
| Abnormal Psychology | ||
| Biological/Cognitive Bases of Behavior (Area B) | ||
| Complete one of the following: | 4 | |
| Learning and Motivation | ||
| Learning Principles and Behavior Analysis | ||
| Sensation and Perception | ||
| Biological Psychology | ||
| Language/Cognition Elective | ||
| Complete one of the following: | 4 | |
| Language and the Brain | ||
| Psychology of Reading | ||
| Cognitive Development | ||
| Seminar in Psycholinguistics | ||
| Seminar in Cognition | ||
| Seminar in Cognitive Neuroscience | ||
Integrative Requirements
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| INTP 4940 | Interpreting Research Capstone | 4 |
| PSYC 3464 | Psychology of Language | 4 |
Combined Major GPA Requirement
Minimum 2.750 GPA required in all AMSL, INTP, and DEAF courses
Minimum 2.500 overall GPA required
Combined Major Credit Requirement
Complete 82 semester hours in the major.
Experiential Liberal Arts
All undergraduate students in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities are required to complete the Experiential Liberal Arts Requirement.
Program Requirement
128 total semester hours required
Four Years, No Co-op
| Year 1 | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours | Summer 1 | Hours | Summer 2 | Hours |
| AMSL 1101 | 4 | AMSL 1102 | 4 | Vacation | 0 | Vacation | 0 |
| DEAF 1500 | 4 | LING 1150 | 4 | ||||
| PSYC 1101 | 4 | MATH 1215 | 4 | ||||
| ENGW 1111 | 4 | Elective | 4 | ||||
| 16 | 16 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Year 2 | |||||||
| Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours | Summer 1 | Hours | Summer 2 | Hours |
| AMSL 2101 | 4 | AMSL 2102 | 4 | Vacation | 0 | Vacation | 0 |
| DEAF 2500 | 4 | PSYC 2320 | 4 | ||||
| PSYC 3464 | 4 | PSYC 3466 | 4 | ||||
| INTP 3500 | 2 | Elective | 4 | ||||
| Elective | 1-4 | ||||||
| 15-18 | 16 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Year 3 | |||||||
| Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours | Summer 1 | Hours | Summer 2 | Hours |
| AMSL 3101 | 4 | DEAF 2700 | 4 | Vacation | 0 | Vacation | 0 |
| Psych Area A elective | 4 | Psych Area B elective | 4 | ||||
| ENGW 3315 | 4 | Language/cognition elective | 4 | ||||
| INTP 3510 | 4 | AMSL 3102 | 4 | ||||
| 16 | 16 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Year 4 | |||||||
| Fall | Hours | Spring | Hours | ||||
| INTP 3970 | 4 | INTP 4940 | 4 | ||||
| Elective | 4 | Psych lab elective | 4 | ||||
| Elective | 4 | Psych Area A elective | 4 | ||||
| Elective | 4 | Elective | 4 | ||||
| 16 | 16 | ||||||
| Total Hours: 127-130 | |||||||