5 MINUTE V OICE O FF WITH P ARTNER Please use this time to chat with your partner without using any spoken language.

W ARM U P With your partner, practice gesturing the cards on your desk. Have your partner try and guess what you are gesturing. Feel free to think outside the box and make up your own concepts to gesture.

W HAT DO YOU THINK ? What is a language? What makes a language an official language? Why is ASL considered an official language?

W HAT IS GESTURING ? A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of speech or together and in parallel with spoken words. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body. Gestures differ from physical non-verbal communication that does not communicate specific messagesnon-verbal communicationspeechhandsfacebody

W HAT IS ASL? American Sign Language is a visually perceived language based on a naturally evolved system of articulated hand gestures and their placement relative to the body, along with non- manual markers such as facial expressions, head movements, shoulder raises, mouth morphemes, and movements of the body

W HAT MAKES A LANGUAGE A LANGUAGE ? Language is typically said to be governed by a group of unspoken rules : phonological, semantic, syntactic, pragmatic, prosodic, and idiosyncratic.phonologicalsemantic syntacticpragmaticprosodicidiosyncratic Basically: relationship between sounds relationship between symbols and the things they refer to how things are organized or ordered (grammar) social communication- social norms/changing languages Inflection of voice Word choice

H OW DOES THIS APPLY TO ASL? ASL uses 5 parameters Handshape Movement Location Orientation Non-Manual Signals ASL is constantly changing and evolving ASL follows the other rules of language

5 PARAMETERS OF ASL Handshape- the shape that your hand is in Movement Location- where in location to your body Palm Orientation- which way is your palm faced Non-Manual Signals- facial expressions

D ISSECT THE ABC’ S For each letter, think about your Palm Orientation, Movement, Location, and Handshape for the letters.

W ORDS THAT USE LETTER HANDSHAPES

P ARTNER W ORK Practice fingerspelling the alphabet A-Z Practice fingerspelling your name and your partners name Practice fingerspelling these words: Abdicate - to give up Regalia - the emblems of royalty Zephyr - any soft, gentle wind Intromit - to insert Pact - a covenant