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From:
Akehurst Date: Thu Apr 8, 1999 10:03 pm Subject: Advanced SW materials | ||||||||||||
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Hi Valerie! Apologies for not getting back to you before this, I ended up being away for much longer than anticipated and my 'life' did not remain orderly while I was gone. Lots of 'catch up' to run at the moment... Anyway, I wanted to say how very much I appreciate receiving these materials and how impressed I am with the tremendous amount of work to which you've gone to create them. I haven't been able to go through them step by step as of yet, but what I have been able to examine has been really helpful - clear, concise and easy to follow. I realize it adds to your work and the expense of production, but putting the SW symbols in different colours as you've done in the 'Learn to Read ASL in SignWriting' book is a tremendous idea, primarily because they just 'leap' out at you as you are reading through the book. I'm finding this, personally, very helpful as I still have trouble with the facial expressions (and have appreciated the discussion of late as to what/when and how much to include in SW). In this book, I'll think I'm concentrating on some other aspect of the symbol but I find that I am still picking up the appropriate facial expression indicated because it's in colour. It's a great idea, Valerie. I still find it difficult, when writing, to be conscious of what facial expression is appropriate - but that's another topic! The frame by frame capture of the video with the English gloss to one side and detailed SW symbol and explanation to the other side are very helpful. Someone's comment recently about not understanding all the SW symbols but finding that if you just 'kept going' you were able to deduce the meaning of those few because of clearly understanding the preceding and following ones is very apt. I tried allowing myself to look only at the symbols in the SW Level 3 and 4 books (and not the gloss) and found I could figure them out if I kept going because a few of the elements show up in other symbols and, gradually, you piece together the meaning of the symbols you hadn't initially understood. Kind of like 'sounding out' new words! And that is what reading is all about, to be sure. I'm looking forward to going through this with our group in the near future (I hope). They're scattered to the four winds at the moment but should all be back in the area soon. I'll let you know how they do and what are their observations about these advanced materials. As I have a chance to go through them on my own (and with my five year old!) I'll forward our impressions to the list. Thanks again for all this work, Valerie. I know it's taken its toll on you and your health, so please do pace yourself. SW is taking on a life of its own, and you are to be thanked for that. all the best, Kathy Akehurst Private Tutor Ontario, Canada | ||||||||||||
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