Project Introduction

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 schedule has inhibited this activity outside of this project. While I do not have a traditional “meaningful” purpose to pursue ASL, my natural curiosity is the driving force of this project.  Aside from learning and presenting this project in ASL, I hope to spread awareness overall about this beautiful language and I hope to encourage others to learn ASL. Expanding our knowledge about how we can communicate with others from all backgrounds should always be our goal.





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