Becoming Adept In American Sign Language

Want to learn and become proficient in American Sign Language (ASL)? Well, in this article I'll give you a little background on some of the features of this fascinating method of communication and how to go about learning sign language.

To begin with, it's probably useful to know that American Sign Language is quite unlike English in that it follows entirely different grammatical rules and semantics. Unlike English, which uses a subject-object-verb syntax, American Sign Language uses a topic-comment syntax.

While hand gestures are a major component of American Sign Language, they are just one component. In fact, facial features, such as eyebrow motion and lip-mouth movements, are critical to the grammatical system of American Sign Language. Also, "signers" use the space around themselves to describe absent locations and people.

American Sign Language varies considerably from other sign languages. Unfortunately, someone from an English speaking country like England or New Zealand has no advantage whatsoever over a signer from a non-English speaking country. In fact, since ASL has its origins in the teachings of a Frenchman, it actually shares more similarities to Old French Sign Language than to, say, British Sign Language.

What is fascinating to many linguists - and challenging for someone aiming to develop ASL skills - is that someone using American Sign Language can communicate more pieces of information than someone using a spoken language. After all, a signer has more "instruments" than a speaker, who really only has the sound of their voice. That's not to say that speakers don't use body language of course (an "informal" sign language), just that voice alone is more limited in terms of transmitting ideas, compared with the hands, face and body of a signer.

A working knowledge of American Sign Language takes time to develop. You can expect to devote a couple of years of daily study and practice to developing ASL skills. It's also useful to know that, as with other languages, there are conventions and variations due to signers' sex, age, cultural background, and place of origin.

ASL learning options include private tutoring, home-study courses and books, to distance or Internet based learning, to attending classes at a university, community college, school for the deaf or private training organization. Nevertheless, in all situations, the best way to get on top of ASL is to communicate with other signers as often as possible.

Undoubtedly, the journey towards ASL proficiency is a worthwhile one. You'll not only end up possessing the ability to communicate with the majority of deaf Americans, but you'll discover a challenging and fascinating language as well.