Learning American Sign Language

I started this lesson originally on May 22nd and continued the lesson over the course of two different days. After finishing the lesson today, I reflected on my goals at the beginning of this project and realized how behind I was on my lessons (at least in comparison to where I wanted to be). My original goal for myself was to complete one video lesson a day and considering when I started this project (May 15th), I hoped to have completed 19 video lessons by now. My schedule and lack of motivation at the conclusion of the academic year has inhibited my discipline for this project. With my existing progress I believe I will pivot the format of my final presentation to be more of an overall reflection. More details to follow… Anyway, my fourth ASL Lesson was about 36-minutes in video length. After each review of vocabulary words, I tried to pause the video and imitate the motion of Instructor Bill. With each pause with Instructor Bill and Katelyn, my total time in this lesson was 49:32 (...

My third ASL Lesson was about 46-minutes in video length. After each new and review of words that was shown, I paused the video and imitated the motion of Instructor Bill. With each pause my total time of today’s sitting was 57:18 (I tried to pause less in today’s session). I started this lesson pretty late in the evening, which I regret immensely; not getting a chance to practice / learn this weekend and starting late was not the best combination. While I was trying not to fall asleep, I was surprised how many words I did remember from my weekend hiatus, there were still plenty of words I needed refreshers on though.  In this third lesson, Instructor Bill introduced a new student named Katelyn. She seemed slightly more advanced compared to Jen. Katelyn was more fluid with finger spelling, though still struggled comprehending finger spellings given to her. Katelyn also knew certain new words that were introduced in the lesson, indicating she is slightly more advanced in ASL. Bill’s...

 My second ASL Lesson was about 39-minutes in video length. After each new word that was taught I paused the video and tried to perform the motion like Instructor Bill. With each pause my total time of today’s sitting- broken up throughout the school day- was 1:01:46. As mentioned, I started my second lesson during the school day in my classes that were free periods. I realized that if I only do one video a day then I will only get through the 2nd unit (not even complete the unit entirely) by the end of this project. There are a total of four units with 60 lessons so for the continuing weeks I will try to do more than one video a day. When I get home I will attempt to do another lesson~  At the start of today I was weary of continuing my video lessons and practicing the movements during my class periods; I was nervous that I would not retain as much information in busy environments. I do believe my nerves were relatively correct as I was slightly less concentrated on my activi...

My first ASL Lesson was about 45-minutes in video length. After each new word that was taught I paused and tried to perform the motion like the instructor. This helped me crystalize each word the instructor taught. I forgot to time the full duration of this sitting though in general I would say I added 1-2 hours to the video by pausing in addition to the standing 45-minute video; I will ensure I use a stopwatch next sitting. This first sitting will act as my standard deviation after I correctly record the duration of next learning sittings.  The instructor, Bill, was very expressive and friendly, he was teaching a beginner ASL learner Jen (and the viewers of the video of course) by using an additional computer screen and his own movements to model proper form. Words were shown on the computer screen from a presentation and Bill would show the signing movements to communicate the words. Occasionally he would also type on his computer, tips and movement guidance. Between every couple...

For this project I will be attempting to learn American Sign Language, or commonly known to as ASL. I plan to learn ASL by utilizing the free lessons from the online resource center, ASL University. Aside from visual videos, presentations, and flashcards, this center has quizzes I can take at the end of each unit to gauge my proficiency in my knowledge. By the end of this project I hope to become intermediately proficient in ASL and be able to sign during conversations. My interest in ASL began when I was in elementary school and was given a bookmark (image of said bookmark attached) from my school librarian with all of the letters and numbers (up to ten) in ASL. This bookmark sparked my interest to learn ASL; I found the method of nonverbal communication fascinating. I am proud to say I have the alphabet already memorized of ASL (from the silly bookmark) and eager to learn more. I am grateful for this project giving me the outlet and discipline to explore this interest as my busy sche...