Last weekend I took some time to explore some of my Youtube resources and learn more about ASL and signing technique. The main video I watched was by a channel called Learn How to Sign, which is run by a woman who is a certified ASL instructor and educational interpreter in the USA. The video I chose to watch was “The 5 Rules for EVERY Sign in ASL: 5 Parameters of Sign” (see below).
My main takeaways from this video are summarized below, check it out!
The 5 rules of signing include:
- Hand shape: the shape of your hand(s) as you perform a sign
- Palm orientation: the direction that your palm is facing as you sign
- Location: where your hands are in proximity to your body (i.e. anchored on your body, head, or in neutral space).
- Movement: variety of forms of movement that contribute to a sign
- Non-manual signs: facial expression and body language (i.e. eyebrow movements, mouth morphemes, expressions, etc).
*Some signs use two hands, incorporate varied amounts of movement or none, require a facial expression or morpheme (mouth sound).
Breaking down the ASL sign for sad:
(refer to video for demonstration)
- Hand shape: both hands are used a “five” hand shape
- Palm orientation: facing in towards the body
- Location: in neutral space in front of face and going down to the chest area
- Movement: moving down
- Non-manual signs: show the facial expression for sad
- To change the intensity of emotion, in this case, to show a deeper level of sadness, you must adjust your non-manual signs/facial expression to illustrate.
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