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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Tue May 4, 1999 3:19 pm Subject: Questions Learn To Read ASL | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Deborah asked: >My students do not have strong ASL skills. Some came from programs that >used signed English. I am hoping that SignWriting will be a good >language model for them. What happens if my students produce >SignWriting that is not perfect ASL? What if teachers want to >participate but do not know sign? I really appreciate your help. This >information will give me a better picture of what I am proposing to the >administration. I look forward to hear from you. >Sincerely, >Deborah Holden __________________________________ May 4, 1999 Hi Deborah - I guess I see three questions above. The first is...Do you have to know ASL to participate in our SW Literacy Project? No.. Most school systems have a blend of teachers with different backgrounds. Some are Deaf. Some are hearing. Some sign well, and others do not. Such is life in the educational system! There is no problem with your school participating in the SignWriting Literacy Project, if your teachers, parents and students are interested and eager to learn :-) The second question is ...What happens if your students do not write "perfect ASL? First, let's look at written English....Some people write excellent English, and other people do not. But we still understand each other. So just "try", and if someone doesn't write perfectly in ASL it is OK! "Communication" is the key concern. And through experience, you will all learn and improve together. Second, since SignWriting writes any body movement, it can technically be used to write any form of signing, including Signed English. Our organization has "chosen to write ASL". But if your students write Signed English, they are still learning to read and write, and in time they will see the "difference between Signed English and ASL" and that is an important learning experience for them. The third question is...Will our SignWriting materials "teach you ASL"? Your students and teachers can gain ASL vocabulary and knowledge of ASL sentence structure from reading ASL literature. So their "general knowledge of ASL" should improve. It does not mean they will sign ASL better, but in the long run, if they read enough, in time it will "sink in". My signing skills improved when I started writing ASL, but it does vary from student to student, and it also takes time. So, why not start right now, discussing some of those details? Reading the frame by frame instruction of ASL sentences, with pictures of Darline signing, can help to learn signs and sentence structure. As you know, Darline is Deaf and a native signer, so that is why I based the lessons on her "video storytelling". Go to this lesson on the web.... Learn to Read American Sign Language https://www.SignWriting.org/learn005.html Let's look at the ASL sentence on that page. Can you see that the signs are in this order: WHAT...QUOTE...THREE...BEARS...GOLDILOCKS I have noticed that titles of stories in ASL usually start with "WHAT QUOTE", when the title is a "well-known" title. It is not a true question, but it is essentially asking: what is the story I am going to tell you now? This means that the sign for WHAT, has the head projected forward, because asking a question in ASL usually projects the head forward. And Darline did that on the video. Those kind of details might help your teachers and students to learn ASL - I hope so! Thanks for all your questions, and feel free to ask more! Valerie :-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Valerie Sutton SignWriting https://www.SignWriting.org The DAC, Deaf Action Committee for SW Center For Sutton Movement Writing an educational nonprofit organization Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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