Customer Reviews

American Sign Language the Easy Way

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Finally, a book that looks at ASL completely!! 'American Sign Language the Easy Way' is a must for the beginner ASL user. It provides comprehensive information about the signs themselves, the grammar of ASL, the importance of facial expression and the culture that surrounds native users. The conversational dialogues illustrated in the book give students useful and real-life scenarios of signs exchanged when interacting with other ASL users. When learning any oral language, grammar plays an important role. This is also true for ASL, a manual mode of communication that has its own unique set of grammatical rules that must be learned to converse effectively. Other books in ASL do not stress the importance of the grammar and facial expression. The Easy Way illustrates a wide variety of signs and the context for their use. I recommend this book to everyone who is interested in learning ALL about American Sign Language, its form and culture.

American Sign Language The Easy Way is an explorative introduction to deaf language and culture. This book combines basic ASL grammar and language rules with conversational signs. Whether one is in a classroom or at home, ASL The Easy Way is a reliable sourcebook. It appeals to both students and teachers. As a beginner ASL student, I have found this book to be very useful. There are many misconceptions about ASL and this book provided an excellent introductery summary to erase these thoughts. For example, David Stewart discusses the physical and cultural dimensions of ASL. Stewart strongly states that "Learning ASL is not simply about learning another language. It is about access...ASL gives us access to Deaf culture"(p.5). Both chapter three and seven are essential to the understanding of ASL. Although short, Chapter 3: The Deaf Community, describes the complexity of deaf culture. Stewart distinguishes between nondeaf and deaf communities. He describes the "five important differences as: American Sign Language; Socialization; Organizations and Clubs; Schools for the deaf; and Deaf pride."(p101-102). As a speaking person learning ASL, these are five differences I did not think of until reading this book. In Chapter seven, Stewart discusses technology and adaptations to a speaking world. He focuses on tele- communition technology, alerting devices and sign language interpreting. Living with a deaf mother, I am well aware of the TTY, close captioning and interpreters. However, I was surprised at the alerting devices, such as lights flashing or vibration. I am embarrassed to say that my mother lives in a hearing home, one that does not have alert devices. I hope to convince my family that we should add such devices to better aid my mother, especially when she is alone. The vivid illustrations of signs in combination with grammar rules allows a beginner to learn ASL in two fold. I reccommend this book for anyone interested in learning ASL and for those who need a reliable classroom source book. Dr. David Stewart has done an excellent job within the limitations of Barron's 'the easy way'.

Whether one is study by themselves, or one wishes to use this book as a beginning ASL text for classroom use, Dr. Stewert's book will have you well on your way to learning this beautiful language.

As a hearing impaired person, it is important to me to learn sign language as it is used in the deaf community. This book differs from other mass-marketed ASL books in that there are extensive explainations on ASL Grammar, facial expressions, and the culture of the Deaf Community. This book is chock-full useful vocabulary that is clearly illustrated and used in both English-gloss, and in ASL grammar to aid in learning.

People often see me practicing my ASL at school or at work and they express a desire "to learn sign language." My response to them is always the same: (1) Buy this book along with Martin LA Sternberg's ASL Dictionary (along with the one on CD ROM if you can), and (2) Stay away from courses and popular "Sign Language" courses and books that use the "pidgeon sign."

Why settle for learning this wonderful language the wrong way when you can have the best ASL text on the market?

Feel free to email me with more questions. I highly recommend this book, and like I said, I tell everyone I meet who expresses a desire to learn ASL to buy it!

I have been studying Sign Language off and on for a few years, but while reading one book, I learned that ASL and Exact Signed English are two different things. I have already learned foreign languages, so I was eager to give ASL a good try. I wanted to sound like a "native" sign language speaker, since ASL is usually restricted to the Deaf community. This book explains the grammer of ASL and vocabulary for different situations very easily and clearly. It has many exercises, so it is hard to forget something that you learned in a lesson. Right now I can talk in various situations, and I'm only on Chapter 2! This is a very good book, and at a good price, too. I highly recommend it.

The publisher promotes this book as a study guide to improve your grade in an ASL course. In fact, it is much more. Even if you do not have access to a formal class in ASL, this book gives an excellent introduction to deaf culture and American Sign Language. The author does a great job of explaining to beginners the grammatical rules of a language whose syntax is just beginning to be understood by linguists. The diagrams of how to form the signs are pretty good -- it's tough for any book to really show the movements unambiguously. One of the last sections includes a complete translation of The Lord's Prayer, interesting both for its religious significance as well as being the longest ASL monologue I have seen in any book. (Dialogues only can show you so much about a language).

I've been wanting a book like this for some time. I plan to start requiring it in the fall, in my sign class. The books only weakness is that the drawings are not accompanied by a description of the movement, and some students might be confused if they are trying to self-learn. Otherwise, the book is a dream!

A native signer

This book is very good and ASL and it's structure are the natural language of the deaf. But the lady in an earlier review said to avoid 'Pidgeon Signed English'. First off, it's PIDGIN Signed English (PSE). And hearing people shouldn't AVOID it. Any grammar structure of ASL is good as long as hearing people want to learn our language. PSE is sign language used in the exact structure as spoken English while ASL order goes in it's own order. I'm happy with hearing people learning EITHER structure. But if you want to learn the ASL order, get this book!

If you're interested in learning American Sign Language and you are on that venture alone, this book is the perfect place to begin! Sprinkled with information about the Deaf Culture and various issues, this book is filled with many of the primary grammatical rules of American Sign Language and takes you through, step by step, to show you how to begin to think pictorally and conceptually. Practice conversations, vocabulary with clear illustrations, grammatical rules and other information cover you in instructional tools to begin to speak the language of many Deaf Americans, myself included.

As an ASL instructor, I highly recommend this book and know that you will beneift greatly from it if you are intent on following through. Highly recommended! :o)

If you are learning American Sign Language then this is one book to purchase. It's full of essential material that every ASL user must understand. After you have studied it, you will find yourself using this fine book as a reference source. It is very well done and worth the price.

I like using this book along with Tom Humphries' A Basic Course in American Sign Language. Together they make an essential study of ASL. I highly recommend both publications!

I find this book useful for the American sign language student. It give useful information on signing tips, deaf culture, and proper signing ques. The sign descriptions are clear and easy to read. I recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn the basic principals of ASL.