Rating: 
Summary: THE BEST Sign Language (ASL) text I have ever seen
Review: After a semester of Siglish, I took 4 semesters of American Sign Language (ASL) in college as my foreign language requirement. The course was superby taught by a husband and wife team, both who worked at residential schools for the deaf for over 25 years. This book was the text for the first 2 semesters and I still have it on my shelf.Extremely detailed, lots of exlplainations and superb drawings. The text is spiral bound, which is awesome for laying a book flat while practicing signs. If you carry this book with you in a backpack, however, you should keep the book in a protective bag... the spiral binding makes the book very vulnerable to pages ripping away while being jostled in a backpack. This text should not replace classroom instruction. There is no text that can replace a real human being explaining how one sign looks exactly like another depending on context, facial expressions and body language. You can easily embarrass yourself by assuming you can figure out the drawings and go about conversing in ASL with someone w/o the benefit of real one-on-one practice with another human being. Signs like "prostitute" and "shy" are almost identical to the learner and if you're talking to someone and you say "I'm shy," you might end up getting a bunch of raised eyebrows if you don't do it just right. Signs for "lemon" and "lesbian" are also very closely similar... you can imagine the types of mis-understandings that can occur if you don't learn these signs properly. This warning is not meant as discouragement. If you have already learned the manual alphabet and find yourself to be quite adept, ASL will probably be a breeze to you... at least it was to me. Some people really take to it and others don't. Spoken language is not my strong suit and I was a late talker to begin with. If my college didn't offer ASL as a foreign language requirement, I would have never graduated. Regardless of your aptitude, study and practice is essential for good, rapid signing... and more importantly, signing that can be understood. Even if you become a wiz at signing, you must have practice at reading other people's signs or you won't be able to have a conversation. It's been 8 years since my last ASL class and wlithout anyone to practice with, I've forgotten a lot of signs, so I constantly refer to this book... it's a great reference for those wanting to freshen up on forgotten signs or to use to learn in the classroom or with a study partner.
Rating:
Summary: Great help for beginners
Review: For a beginning ASL student, this is an excellent aid. The illustrations of signs show positions and movements clearly. Sentence structure examples are concise and clear, with good practice dialogues and exercises. Vocabulary words are well-indexed and so far everything I've looked up has been in the index. Vocabulary might grow faster if related terms were presented together, but each lesson introduces clearly all the words needed to practice the concepts just introduced. As a beginner, until I got this book I didn't trust my memory and was afraid I was practicing some signs inaccurately. The illustrations are a great help in reinforcing what I saw in class. (In re-reading this, I notice that I used "clear" too often. But that's the main benefit of the book, so I'll let it stand.)
Rating:
Summary: Great help for beginners
Review: For a beginning ASL student, this is an excellent aid. The illustrations of signs show positions and movements clearly. Sentence structure examples are concise and clear, with good practice dialogues and exercises. Vocabulary words are well-indexed and so far everything I've looked up has been in the index. Vocabulary might grow faster if related terms were presented together, but each lesson introduces clearly all the words needed to practice the concepts just introduced. As a beginner, until I got this book I didn't trust my memory and was afraid I was practicing some signs inaccurately. The illustrations are a great help in reinforcing what I saw in class. (In re-reading this, I notice that I used "clear" too often. But that's the main benefit of the book, so I'll let it stand.)
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book, Especially if You're On Your Own
Review: Here is a sign language book which provides so much information on ASL grammar in such an easy-to-learn format. With a book like this on the market, there is no reason for a hearing person to think that learning ASL grammar is too difficult. The rules are laid out and explained simply, with many exercises. And, of course, there are signs to be learned. Want to get started speaking the language of the Deaf community instead of just speaking English a different way? Then buy this book and get started.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book, Especially if You're On Your Own
Review: Here is a sign language book which provides so much information on ASL grammar in such an easy-to-learn format. With a book like this on the market, there is no reason for a hearing person to think that learning ASL grammar is too difficult. The rules are laid out and explained simply, with many exercises. And, of course, there are signs to be learned. Want to get started speaking the language of the Deaf community instead of just speaking English a different way? Then buy this book and get started.
Rating:
Summary: If you want to understand ASL grammer, this is THE book!
Review: I borrowed a copy of this book some years ago and I thought it was fantastic! This the best book I've seen that explains ASL grammer. I would highly recommend it to the intermediate sign language learner.
Rating: 
Summary: PRETTY GOOD BOOK!
Review: I HAVE JUST FINISHED TAKING THE FIRST LEVEL OF ASL CLASSES AT THE COLLEGE I AM ATTENDING AND I HAVE FOUND THAT THIS BOOK CAN BE VERY HELPFUL IN LEARNING ASL, BUT IT DOES HAVE IT'S DRAWBACKS. SOME OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS WERE A LITTLE HARD TO SEE SO I FOUND MYSELF MAKING THE WRONG HAND SHAPES AT TIMES. ALSO THE BOOK ONLY HAD ONE SIGN FOR EACH WORD. FOR EXAMPLE THE ENGLISH WORD "RUN". THERE IS A SIGN FOR RUNNING WATER, RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT, RUNNING AWAY, ETC. THE BOOK ONLY HAD THE SIGN FOR RUNNING AWAY. THE BOOK DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH SIGNS TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT MEANINGS OF THE WORDS. IF YOU ARE TO BUY THIS BOOK ONLY USE IT TO ACCOMPANY A CLASS OR A LESSON FROM A PERSON WHO IS EDUCATED IN ASL. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO LEARN ASL WITH ONLY THE USE OF THIS BOOK. WITH ANY LANGUAGE YOU HAVE TO NOT ONLY READ WHAT YOU ARE LEARNING, BUT ALSO SEE IT IN ACTION. I RECOMMEND THE RANDOM HOUSE AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE DICTIONARY IF YOU WANT TO SEE MULTIPLE SIGNS FOR SINGLE WORDS.
Rating:
Summary: PRETTY GOOD BOOK!
Review: I HAVE JUST FINISHED TAKING THE FIRST LEVEL OF ASL CLASSES AT THE COLLEGE I AM ATTENDING AND I HAVE FOUND THAT THIS BOOK CAN BE VERY HELPFUL IN LEARNING ASL, BUT IT DOES HAVE IT'S DRAWBACKS. SOME OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS WERE A LITTLE HARD TO SEE SO I FOUND MYSELF MAKING THE WRONG HAND SHAPES AT TIMES. ALSO THE BOOK ONLY HAD ONE SIGN FOR EACH WORD. FOR EXAMPLE THE ENGLISH WORD "RUN". THERE IS A SIGN FOR RUNNING WATER, RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT, RUNNING AWAY, ETC. THE BOOK ONLY HAD THE SIGN FOR RUNNING AWAY. THE BOOK DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH SIGNS TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE DIFFERENT MEANINGS OF THE WORDS. IF YOU ARE TO BUY THIS BOOK ONLY USE IT TO ACCOMPANY A CLASS OR A LESSON FROM A PERSON WHO IS EDUCATED IN ASL. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO LEARN ASL WITH ONLY THE USE OF THIS BOOK. WITH ANY LANGUAGE YOU HAVE TO NOT ONLY READ WHAT YOU ARE LEARNING, BUT ALSO SEE IT IN ACTION. I RECOMMEND THE RANDOM HOUSE AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE DICTIONARY IF YOU WANT TO SEE MULTIPLE SIGNS FOR SINGLE WORDS.
Rating:
Summary: This is an excellent teaching aid!
Review: I have used this book with a deaf friend of mine in order for us to be able to communicate more easily. It has been a tremendous aid and uses signs that are commonly used among the deaf community (according to my friend). It helps you to not only learn specific words but also how to form sentences, ask questions and use descriptive sentences. I highly recommend this book to anyone that is serious about learning ASL!
Rating:
Summary: This is an excellent teaching aid!
Review: I have used this book with a deaf friend of mine in order for us to be able to communicate more easily. It has been a tremendous aid and uses signs that are commonly used among the deaf community (according to my friend). It helps you to not only learn specific words but also how to form sentences, ask questions and use descriptive sentences. I highly recommend this book to anyone that is serious about learning ASL!
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