What You Will Learn
Now that you have a major portion of the technical information behind you, try your hand at a pop quiz. Without looking back, can you remember what these acronyms represent?
ASL
SE
PSE
If you answered American Sign Language, Signed English, and Pidgin Sign English, good for you! It is important to remember these three acronyms. Once you venture into the signing world, you will find that they are used repeatedly in discussions of types of sign language. It is quite common to be asked what type of signing you know and use and where you acquired your skill. As you move forward in this book, you will see the acronym ASL used throughout, as this type of sign language will be the primary focus of this book. The term “sign language” will be used only as a generic form.
How many colleges and universities in the United States offer sign language as a foreign, modern, or world language?
The numbers of colleges and universities that accept and offer American Sign Language for academic credit grows each year. At this time, approximately 180 four-year colleges and universities accept ASL to satisfy the foreign and modern language requirement. Over 600 colleges and universities around the country offer ASL in their curriculum. Public schools, K-12, have also begun to recognize ASL as a world language.
Sign Vocabulary
You will soon acquire, through visual sign images and accompanying instructions, a broad basic sign vocabulary. Add just a little daily practice and a smidgen of determination and you will be well on your way to reaching the Level I of basic ASL. To make your learning journey more interesting and easy to comprehend, the book contains hundreds of detailed sign images. The visual journey begins by understanding the detailed images you will be viewing throughout the book. Please note that all of the images are displayed with the model facing you, the receiver/reader. In other words, simply think that someone is directly signing to you. Also, most images demonstrated throughout this book show a right-handed signer.
Just take a close look at these two images, which illustrate the signs for “hello” and “sign.” These two signs are a great beginning and among the most often used signs.
HELLO: The starting position of the hand is similar to a military salute. Then, simply wave your hand off your forehead.
SIGN: Position both hands in front of the chest with both index fingers extended, and palms facing each other. Circle your hands, alternately rotating them toward your body.
Signs and Rules
Soon, you will learn the basic rules for fingerspelling, sign order, facial expression, and body language. In addition, you will learn strategies to make learning sign language easy and fun. You will also acquire knowledge of the particular framework that sets sign language apart from spoken languages.
There are also rules regarding signing etiquette and rules regarding the American Disabilities Act that will be presented. Moreover, there are important dos and don'ts to learn regarding the deaf, the Deaf community, and the hard of hearing in medical situations. Of course, there will be many little tidbits of information to enjoy and to build on.
