The Cypriot Sign Language Courses aim at transmitting, through educational methods, the CSL, the contact with it and its dissemination as a mean of communication for the Deaf Community in Cyprus. Specifically, students will be asked to produce and understand the basic vocabulary as well as the basic forms of the CSL (CSL has its own syntactic and grammatical structure), through which they will be informed and introduced to the Culture of Deaf People in Cyprus.

Courses

LAN 010 Cypriot Sign Language for Beginners I (5 ECTS)
It is an introductory course of undergraduate level based on the structure of linguistic signs and semantic feature that compose the Sign language. The students will be introduced to the use of fingerspelling alphabet and the exploitation and understanding of mechanisms for the formation of signs. They will have the opportunity to understand and use basic hand shapes and to explore the phonological and morphological features of the meanings as well as enrich their vocabulary in CSL. At the same time, students will gain a deep understanding of the dictionary or grammatical meanings of the signs and ways of using fingerspelling alphabet. Finally, the students will understand the critical communication-functional and socio-cultural role of the Sign Language.
LAN 011 Cypriot Sign Language for Beginners II (5 ECTS)
Prerequisites: LAN 010.

Having gained the basic knowledge in LAN010, students will be able to describe their family and friendly environment, signing about daily life, activities and hobbies, as well as signing about their studies, courses, weekly schedule etc. They will also be able to understand sentences and expressions that are directly relevant to themselves (e.g. basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). In addition, they will be able to exchange information on familiar issues, but also to describe in a simple way aspect of their life, immediate environment and issues of urgent need (e.g. prevention, safety, medical care etc.).