Lesson 05 American Sign Language (ASL)

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Objectives:

___ I understand the concept of "eye gaze"
___ I understand the concept of "Noun-Verb Pairs"
___ I can recognize and sign numbers 31-99
___ I understand the concept of "Agreement Verbs" (Directional Signs)
___ I am able to recognize and sign the practice sentences and story for this lesson
___ I have taken the Lesson 5 Practice Quiz
___ I have taken the general practice quiz for this lesson. See: PRACTICE QUIZZES

Vocabulary:

CAN
CAR
CHURCH
COMPUTER
DO-[what]?
DOCTOR
DOWNLOAD
DRIVE
EMAIL
GIVE
HOME
INTERNET
IN
MOVE
MOVIE
OUT
PLAY
PUT
SIT
STAND
STAY
STORE
WALK
WATCH
WITH
VIDEO
WEBCAM

Review Vocabulary

Expansion Vocabulary

Practice:

Practice sheet: 5.A
01. YOU UNDERSTAND IX-(that-person)?
02. YOU COME HERE HOW?
03. MOVIE, YOUR FAVORITE WHAT?
04. YOUR MOM what-DO?
05. WRISTWATCH, WHO GIVE-you?

Practice sheet: 5.B
06. INTERNET S-I-T-E YOUR FAVORITE WHAT?
07. YOU WALK SCHOOL YOU?
08. _____ SIT WHERE? (Spell name of student.)
09. YOU WANT GO WHERE?
10. YOU LIKE SIGN WITH WHO?

Practice sheet: 5.C
11. CAN YOU DRIVE YOU?
12. YOU DRIVE HERE FROM HOME?
13. YOUR COMPUTER HAVE WEB-CAM?
14. YOU NEED GO DOCTOR?
15. YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS, WHAT?

Practice sheet: 5.D
16. YOUR HOME, WHERE?
17. PLAY, YOU LIKE what-DO?
18. YOU (how)-FEEL?
19. YOUR FAVORITE STORE, WHAT?
20. SIGN WITH FRIEND, YOU LIKE?

Extra Practice

Practice sheet: 5.E
21. COMPUTER, CAN YOU F-I-X? (Can you fix computers?)
22. YOU LIKE DRIVE? (Do you like driving?)
23. YOU DRIVE-TO CHURCH? (Do you drive to church?)
24. YOU LIKE EMAIL? (Do you like using email?)
25. YOU WANT GO HOME YOU? (Do you want to go home?)

Practice sheet: 5.F
26. YOU WANT GO OUTSIDE YOU? (Do you want to go outside?)
27. C-H-E-S-S YOU LIKE PLAY? (Do you like to play chess?) (spell chess)
28. YOU THINK TEACHER NEED STAND? (Do you think teachers should stand?)
29. YOU HAVE MANY DVD INDEX-(point off to side) HOME? (Do you have many DVDs at home?)
30. ALL YOUR FRIEND SIGN? (Do all of your friends sign?)

Practice sheet: 5.G
31. CAN YOU SPELL HER/HIS/THEIR NAME? (Can you spell her/his/their name?)
32. YOU DRIVE SLOW? (Do you drive slowly?)
33. ALL YOUR FRIEND HAVE COMPUTER? (Do all your friends have a computer?)
34. YOUR DAD GIVE-YOU COMPUTER? (Did your dad give you a computer?)
35. YOU HAVE INTERNET INDEX-(point off to the side) HOME? (Do you have Internet access at home?)

Practice sheet: 5.H
36. YOU LIKE GO MOVIES? (Do you like going to the movies?)
37. YOU THINK CHILDREN SHOULD PUT-(away) THEIR TOYS? (Do you think children should put away their toys?)
38. YOU WANT STAY HOME WATCH MOVIE? (Do you want to stay home and watch a movie?)
39. YOU WALK-TO SCHOOL? (Do you walk to school?)
40. YOU LIVE WITH YOUR MOM-DAD? (Do you live with your parents?)

Additional Information:

It is important for students to realize that just because an instructor shows them "a" sign for something it doesn't mean that they now know all of the signs for something. Sometimes the sign you are shown might not even be the most common version of that sign if the sign you were shown was a regionally popular but not generally widespread version of the sign. That is why it is good to stay flexible and be willing to adopt a different sign if you find yourself in a region that uses a sign that is different from what you learned online.

Signs and Words with Multiple Meanings:
ASL has signs that have multiple meanings. English has words that have multiple meanings. When using an English word as a convenient label for a sign we need to keep in mind that the actual meaning or meanings of the sign in ASL might be quite different from what the label normally means in English.

CAN: The English word "can" has more than one meaning. In ASL we use different signs for "can" as in possible and "can" as in a container. For Lesson 5 we are focusing on the meaning of "can" as in possible. See: CAN

VIDEO: The word "video" in English is actually a multiple meaning word. It can mean "a video" as in a movie or a video clip. The English word "video" can also mean "to video record". The ASL sign labeled "MOVIE" can be used to refer to a "video" as in a movie or a video clip: However the sign for MOVIE is not used to indicate "to record a video." For that we learn different signs -- and there are several! Also, there is more than one sign for MOVIE in ASL -- or perhaps it is better to say that the common ASL sign labeled as MOVIE has several different non-dominant handshapes and orientations. Expect to invest a reasonable amount of time if you want to understand the different ways to sign "video record" and "movie." A good start is to visit the MOVIE page and the VIDEO page.

PLAY: The English word play is a multiple meaning word. ASL uses different signs to express the different meanings of PLAY. For lesson 5 we are focusing on "play" as in "to engage in playing". See: PLAY While it is tempting to try to learn signs for every possible English meaning of an ASL label -- your time is better invested focusing on signing the most frequently occurring meanings first and leave the less frequently occurring meanings to later lessons.

SIT: Sometimes the lesson vocabulary seems longer for one lesson than another. That might be because a particular lesson happens to use a lot of overlapping concepts. For example the sign "SIT" tends to be a single movement version of the sign for CHAIR. If you learn SIT you will have an easier time learning CHAIR. Thus learning overlapping concepts takes less effort than learning two completely different concepts. See SIT-[L05]

SITE: While there are various signs that can be used to express the English concept of "site" -- the simple fact is often the context of one's signing eliminates the need to use a separate sign and/or many Deaf choose to just spell certain concepts. If you see "(fs)-SITE" or "S-I-T-E" in a vocabulary list or practice sentence it means to fingerspell the word "site."

STORE: The concept of STORE-[L05] as in "a place that sells stuff" tends to use a double movement. The sign SELL tends to be a single-movement version of the sign for STORE. The English word "store" has other meanings than just "a place that sells stuff." However the lesson isn't trying to teach every possible meaning of the English word "store". The lesson is teaching you how to sign "a place that sells stuff." The curriculum will cover the less frequently occurring concept of "storage" later in some future lesson. Stay focused on frequently used concepts and you will become a better signer -- faster.

TOY: To express the English word "toy" you can just spell "toy." Many adult Deaf skilled signers choose to use (fs)-TOY or (fs)-TOYS rather than signing the concept. Yes, there is a sign for "toy" but for now let's just fingerspell. (Learn to live with a little uncertainty.)

WALK: There are multiple ways to sign the concept of "walk." See: WALK-[L05]

WATCH: The English word watch has more than one meaning. In ASL we use a different sign for "watch" as in "wristwatch" than we do for "watch" as in "to view something". See: WRISTWATCH-[L05]. ASL also uses a variety of different signs to express meanings related to seeing, watching, looking at, and so forth. Visit the "SEE" page for examples. (https://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/pages-signs/s/see.htm)

OR: Often the English concept of "or" is unnecessary. For example it is not needed in a sentence such as: WALK, BIKE, DRIVE, TRAIN, YOU PREFER? (Do you prefer to walk, bike, drive, or take the train?) In that sentence the facial expression for the listing of items tends to briefly start off with raising your eyebrows a bit. Then for the sign "PREFER" you should furrow (lower) your brows a bit to cause the sign to mean "which do you prefer?". You might even see people sign, YOU PREFER YOU? -- thus using the second occurrence of the sign YOU paired with lowered eyebrows to indicate that they want you to reply with an answer that is more than just "yes" or "no."
Future Lesson Vocabulary: BIKE-[L18] | BUS-[L21] | WHAT-DO-[L12] | TRAIN-[L18]

Rightward movement of WH-type concepts: An example of rightward movement of WH-concepts is: YOU COME SCHOOL, HOW? (How did you come to school?) That sort of signing is fine but be aware that some teachers overemphasize rightward movement of WH-concepts. We don't sign YOU HOW to mean "How are you?" We sign HOW YOU? Stay flexible and remember that ASL has more than one right "sign order."

Story:

MY BROTHER NOT GO SCHOOL. IX-[he] (negative-head-shake="not")-FEEL GOOD. STAY HOME, COMPUTER SIT-(long time) PLAY-(long time), INTERNET, EMAIL THEIR-[singular] FRIEND. IX-[he] WANT WATCH MOVIE. PAST-[version-2_used_to_be] MOM DRIVE-TO MOVIE STORE. DRIVE-[to_here]. NOW? DOWNLOAD CAN. I THINK IX-[he] SHOULD GO DOCTOR.

(On YouTube at: https://youtu.be/T3TP65mkfQc )

There's nothing special about that story -- or any of the other stories in the curriculum. You can make up your own story if you want. The point is to tell a story using as many of the current lesson vocabulary items as you can -- without using any new vocabulary that hasn't yet been taught in this or preceding lessons.

Sample English interpretation:
My brother didn't go to school. He doesn't feel good. Stayed home and played on the computer, surfed the net, emailed his friend. He wanted to watch a movie. It used to be that mom drove to the video store. Now we can download. I think he should go to the doctor.

Notes regarding Story 5:
The concepts of "he," "she," and/or "they-(singular)" can each be expressed by using the general "index" (or pointing) sign which can be abbreviated in text as "IX" and is signed by simply pointing off to your dominant side. It is context (clues from the rest of your story) that helps make your meaning understood.

The sign FEEL (and most other signs) can be negated by simply shaking the head negatively while signing FEEL (which creates the meaning of "not feel"). For example, You could shake your head to negate "GO" to mean "not go." If you add the sign "NOT" it simply emphasizes the fact that the person "didn't go." In the sentence "HE [not] FEEL GOOD" you should shake your head negatively and use a somewhat distressed facial expression while signing "FEEL." You can add the sign "NOT" or you can leave it out. Adding the sign NOT simply makes it more obvious that the person wasn't feeling good.

The sign STAY can be done with either one or both hands.

To indicate "play a long time" you can do the sign PLAY using exaggerated movements either two or three times.

The sign SIT-(long time) uses a slightly circular movement (not just up and down).
For another (different) example of the Lesson 5 story see: Lesson 5 story ►

Quizzes:

Self-study students, see: Lesson 05 Practice Quiz
Taking this as a class? Contact your local teacher or see your syllabus for the right quiz to take.

Notes:

Non-dominant Hand usage: Rookie mistake: Spelling with your non-dominant hand when you have no compelling reason to do so. If you are going to sign left-hand dominant — then fingerspell left-hand dominant (unless there is some specific reason such as a physical impairment or you are holding a ham sandwich). "It just feels more comfortable" is perhaps "a" reason but keep in mind that you will cause some viewers to assume you are making a rookie mistake. Skilled signers "do" occasionally spell with their non-dominant hand but we have reasons (holding something in the dominant hand, comparing and contrasting, showing relationships, intentional creative use of language for entertainment or amusement, etc.)

ASL: Lesson 05