Watch American Sign Language for Everyone

Learn to create compound sentences in ASL using a form of contrastive structure with role shifting to indicate the two phrases or sentences. You

Consider the use of symbolism in ASL creative literature. Just as symbols are used in spoken and written language as a stand-in for strong sentiments or abstract thoughts, the same is true in the world of ASL. In addition, you

Poetry in Deaf culture is used to share feelings and ideas, to connect as a community, to promote the community values, and often as a tool for advocacy. It incorporates a wealth of visuospatial phonological devices including handshape, movement, orientation, location, and facial expression. Discover the rhythms of beats and repetitive handshapes for rhyming as you experience ASL poetry.

Explore the excitement of Visual Vernacular, another literature genre unique to Deaf culture. It relies on gesture, role playing, iconic signs (as opposed to signs unique to ASL), body movement, and mime to tell a story. Your professor will share some visual vernacular as well as suggest other videos by famous performers you might want to check out.

Discover the fun of handshape stories, in which a limited number of handshapes are used to tell a story. Although most genres of Deaf literature are like that of other cultures, handshape stories are unique to signed language. You

Learn how to create simple narratives in ASL using the body movements of role shifting to denote different characters and using bulleting to describe sequential action. Discover the specific order of an ASL narrative. Then, then practice with those tools plus new vocabulary including: one day, then, first, second, next, later, and more.

Indexing is another powerful tool in ASL communication. In this lesson, you

Learn how to describe a person

The power of ASL really comes across when describing a physical place; you can get a stronger spatial sense of the environment much more easily than with a written language. Using semantic classifiers as appropriate, your professor will teach signs such as setting, environment, sunrise, moonrise, wind, reflection, cloudy, cool, dry, and humid.

Just like an English word carries part of its meaning by the way it is said, topicalization and spatialization affect the meaning of ASL signs. Using those tools, your professor will teach the signs for colors, size, and patterns. Your new vocabulary will include bright, light, dark, soft, left, right, center, rough, bumpy, plaid, and polka dots.

Discover the history of Deaf education in the United States. While researchers recognize today that ASL leads to robust language development and builds a strong community, there was a time when teaching ASL was controversial. Build your vocabulary by learning the signs for elementary, middle, and high schools; and curricular subjects, including social studies, drama, and more.

Did you grow up in a small town or a big city? Did you live in a condo, apartment, or house? You

Learn how to express time using ASL in terms of precise hours and minutes, as well as the vocabulary of the days of the weeks and months. Discover how the physical body acts as its own timeline in ASL, using sign placement to indicate the past, present, and future.

Explore the vocabulary and phrase structures you

Discover how classifier handshapes can add meaning to your conversation and help you communicate about an activity whose sign you might not know. In this lesson, you

In this lesson you

Discover the important ASL structure of topicalization

In this lesson, you

Explore the fascinating role of facial expressions in signed language, and how the intensity of movements of the eyes, eyebrows, and mouth can change the meaning of a sign. Learn the signs and corresponding facial expressions for numerous positive, negative, and neutral feelings.

To interact with the Deaf community, it

Explore the world of numbers in ASL and learn how to sign up to 1 billion! You

In this lesson, you

Explore the elements of gestural language and learn the difference between ASL signs and gestures. You