American Sign Language I is a language used by the majority of people who are deaf or hard of hearing in the United States and Canada. By learning ASL, students gain access to the deaf culture and insights into features of spoken language. The curriculum is designed to take students who have no knowledge of ASL to the point where they can function comfortably in a wide variety of situations in the deaf community. Deaf language, culture, and history are taught throughout the curriculum. Students must train their eyes, body movements, and facial expressions in order to communicate effectively. ASL I exposes the student to the basics of signing, vocabulary, sentence structure and basic conversation.