Learn Sign language and Deaf Culture • HandSpeak®

Sign language and Deaf culture

Browse topics, tutorials, lessons, and tips that sign language students and language enthusiasts can explore or learn some sign language and Deaf culture, including history, technology, literature, and art. Tutorials in this section can be helpful in complementary with ASL students' offline and online courses.

In the 'Language acquisition' tab, the links are organized in a child's language acquisition, literacy development, and phonological acquisition in sign language, specifically ASL, from newborn to age five in a natural native-ASL environment.

First time? Quick how-to.

Search a topic in the filter/browse box or pick a tab for other categories of topics -- Beginners, Boosters, Literary Arts, Kid Signing.

Screenshot of the search instructions

New to sign language? "Where do I start?" or "How do I start learning sign language?" This ASL Rookie guide lists some selected links to the tutorials for ASL beginners to get started and keep rolling. It may be a useful review for intermediate-level learners and ASL students as well.

Some tutorial pages are a mix of free and premium versions. Access to premium content and links below are available in the PatronPlus subscription. More links/posts will be added from time to time.

Jump-starting

  1. How to fingerspell ABCs
  2. What is and what is not sign language?

Getting started

  1. Benefits of learning sign language
  2. Awareness quiz and Reflections
  3. Basic transcription symbols (glosses)

Language/Culture Fundamentals

  1. What is American Sign Language?
  2. Understanding variations
  3. Introducing audism
  4. Cultural appropriation

Learning first words

  1. Expressing greetings
  2. Introducing oneself and others
  3. Fingerspelling exercise
  4. Expressing goodbyes

ASL Basics

  1. Personal Pronouns
  2. Possessive Pronouns
  3. WH-questions
  4. Yes/no questions
  5. SVO sentence structure
  6. Numbers 1-10+
  7. Basic time: future, present, past

ASL Basics II

  1. Asking what the sign is for a word
  2. Spatial referencing
  3. Verb inflections
  4. Contrastive structure
  5. Listing and Ranking
  6. OSV sentence structure
  7. Classifier basics

Describing shapes

  1. Describing shapes + perspective
  2. Describing shapes + locations
  3. Describing shapes + sizes

Expressing needs and wants

  1. Making commands or requests

Talking about family

  1. Talking about family and pet
  2. Telling age
  3. Telling date

Making basic plans

  1. Review basic tenses
  2. Calendar: DAYS
  3. Calendar: MONTHS
  4. Transportation: basics

Shopping

  1. Telling prices in dollars and cents

Talking about activities

  1. Frequency of time: how often?

Are you able to carry everyday conversations in ASL? Are you a student in the intermediate levels and beyond, who wishes to boost up your signing skills? You've come to the selected tutorial series.

Stories, poems, performance arts, etc. in sign language.

Fables

Fables II

Poem Translations

Stories

Deaf Jokes

Parables

Performance and video arts

Techniques and Devices

This documentation project follows a child's language acquisition, literacy development, and phonological acquisition in sign language, specifically ASL as a first language (L1), from newborn to age five in a natural native-ASL environment and visual culture.

Language development

  1. Language acquisition in signing
  2. Language acquisition milestones
  3. Phonological acquisition
  4. Language development: Age 1 to 1.5
  5. Language development: Age 1.5 to 2
  6. Baby sign language: myths debunked

Baby Signing

  1. Eye contact with baby from birth
  2. Cooing in sign language
  3. Eye tracking and gazing
  4. Eye-hand coordination
  5. Gestural pointing and communicative gesture
  6. Marginal babbling
  7. Babbling in sign language
  8. Gesturel pointing for words
  9. Understanding words
  10. Baby's first words
  11. Expressing manners and appreciation
  12. Literacy: peekaboo
  13. Literacy: nursery rhymes
  14. Identity and sense of self
  15. Parentese or motherese

Toddler Signing

  1. One-word stage
  2. Recognizing and naming ABCs
  3. Recognizing and naming colors
  4. Two-word stage
  5. Pronouns and reversal errors
  6. Prepositions
  7. Questions
  8. Classifiers
  9. Indicating verbs
  10. Expressing concepts of time
  11. Phonological acquisition: a case study

Preschooler and Kinder

  1. Conditional statements
  2. Conjunctions
  3. Other pronouns
  4. Literacy: writing

From baby to preschooler

  1. Proximalization
  2. Number
  3. Fingerspelling development
  4. Fingerspelling with a CAN attitude
  5. Drawing
  6. Sense of humor

Alphabet

how to write wh-questions in ASL

Fingerspelling is used for personal names, foreign (spoken) words, etc. It can be used when a beginner doesn't know an ASL word. To get started, learn the ABCs in ASL alphabet.

Sign Language

Signed language is a natural, full-fledged language in visual-spatial modality. It has all linguistic features (from phonology to syntax) as found in spoken language. It's the primary language of Deaf people in North America. More on American Sign Language. Learn about the myths and facts about sign language.

Grammar

Signed languages have their own grammar that are different from spoken languages. E.g. ASL and English are two independent languages with their own structure, grammar, vocabulary and so on.

Random grammar tip:

For yes-no questions in ASL, raise eyebrows and lean head slightly forward. Practice the grammar of yes/no questions. Yes/No Question

Numbers

Take a peek what the ASL number is: number.

Learn how to sign numbers 1 to 100.

Classifiers

If you have reached a basic conversational level, are you ready to learn how to use classifiers in sign language?

Deaf Culture

Where there is language, there is culture; sign language and Deaf culture are inseparable.

When learning sign language, become familiar with cultural appropriation to avoid inappropriate intentions and audism to be aware of. Learning sign language and Deaf culture comes with the process of allyship.