Asking for help Engaging in Basic Conversation Activities Using WH-signs and Facial Expressions Days of the Week Classroom Signs

GIVE is a directional sign. This means I-GIVE- YOU. If you change the movement toward yourself it becomes YOU-GIVE-ME. You can also sign with both hands to GIVE-EACH-OTHER or TRADE.

Help is a directional sign. When using HELP as a general sign the movement is straight up. For HELP-ME the movement is toward your body. For the sign HELP-YOU simply move the sign toward the other person. You will learn many more directional signs later.

If you raise your eyebrows this sign becomes SHOULD. When you change the movement to one strong downward movement the sign becomes MUST.

The sign for SURE is also the same sign as TRUE and REALLY. Your facial expressions will change depending on which meaning you want to convey.

Facial expressions are essential in American Sign Language and you must learn feel comfortable with them. Not only do they show emotions, as you learned in Unit 1, but they are also used when asking a question, asking for clarification, and to show intensity of a sign. When asking a question it is important to use the appropriate facial expression or what is know as the WH-Face.

Notice the use of the WH-Face in the following examples asking for clarification.

This is also the sign for DON’T.

You will also see the sign (two thumbs up) for YOU’RE WELCOME.

Natural gesture that is also a sign

The sign for HOME began as EAT/SLEEP as home is where you eat and sleep. Over time the sign evolved to maintaining the same handshape in both positions.

Here the flat hands represent two feet taking steps forward. With this sign the fingers represent the two legs as they walk.

Not only can the fingers represent legs, but they also represent the eyes. Here, two eyes read the page.

When signing this with a bigger movement, the sign becomes to CANCEL.

The sign for student is LEARN + the agent marker, which represents a person. Can you see how the sign brings the information off the page and into the head?

Here you see that the information is coming out of the head to be given away to others (the sign for TEACH) and the agent marker is added to make it a person.

The sign for MISTAKE is very similar to the sign for WRONG. Instead of just touching the chin, the sign twists from right to left.

The question mark can be added to the end of a sentence for emphasis along with the WH face, especially when a WH question word is not being used. Just as we saw that HELP is a directional sign, ASK is a directional sign as well. See how the movement changes direction depending on who is asking whom.

To-eat Food Although FOOD and EAT are interchangeable signs, often you will see them as a noun/verb pair. We will learn about these later. What does this mean? Well… for a verb (EAT) you sign one big movement and for a noun (FOOD) you sign it twice with a smaller controlled movement.

Cool Information: The sign for WISH is the exact same sign as HUNGRY!

CAFETERIA is signed the same way but with a “C” handshape. NAPKIN is singed with a “flat O” handshape.

Days of the week can be signed toward or away from the body depending on the signs preceding or following. For example: LAST MONDAY you would sign facing the body. But, MONDAY YOU DO-DO WHAT? You would sing facing away from the body.

Again, facing towards or away from the body. If the sign preceding the week day is already facing the body, you sign the day of the week facing you. If the sign before or after the day of the week is facing away from the body you sign the weekday facing away from you.

Another example would be: YOU- ALL WEDNESDAY TAKE TEST. Wednesday would be signed facing forward because YOU-ALL is a forward facing sign.

Most commonly used. Alternate signs for Thursday.

FRIDAY I GO STORE Signed facing since I will be facing myself. FRIDAY HE ABSENT Signed facing away from self since HE is facing away from myself.

Got the idea? Whether you sign the day of the week facing towards or away from your body depends on the signs around it. Neither one is more correct; you sign the one that’s easiest.

This is the sign your book teaches for SUNDAY. Another very popular way to sign SUNDAY is with the hands moving up and down facing forward.

Another very popular ASL sign for KICK-BACK is the two bent index fingers, one up and one down.

This sign is also used to mean COMPETE or COMPITION and you will also see it to mean RUN-TRACK and RACE.

When asking a question it is important to use the appropriate facial expression or what is know as the WH-Face.

The sign for DAY shows the sun moving across the horizon.

The sign for week moves across the hand from left to right, just as the days of the week move across a calendar.

Here you see the sign for week and then it drops off to show the end of the week

Alternate signs for WHO

Another common sign you will see for WHAT is the right index finger dragged across the left open 5 hand.

When you change the handshape to a “V” this sign becomes VALUE.