Learning American Sign Language: Beginning and Intermediate, Levels 1-2

I use this book often and it's a great buy for usersRecommended by my teacher for ASL 3-upThere is also a work book and one for beginners.Quality is great, looks a little used but barely.Arrived on time, does show basic signs too.

I received my book yesterday. After looking through it for an hour and studying the first pages, I learned how the book was written. Several learning aids are included in the pictures and once you study what the aids do, you realize how much thought went into this book. I intend on taking a formal class using this book. But until that time I am going to begin on my own so I have a head start. I have read reviews from people who say that the pictures are too hard to understand. They did not take the time to read the explanation for the pictures. This is a fine book and I cannot wait to get into it. It is my intention to become certified as an Interpreter and this book will give me a great start. This is a book for people who are serious about study, not those who want learning and understanding handed to them on a platter.

Thank you! My book was in better condition than I expected!

Speak Mandarin Chinese For Beginners The Michel Thomas Method (8-CD Beginner's Program) (Michel Thomas Series)Michel Thomas Method Speak Mandarin Chinese Advanced (Michel Thomas Series)Michel Thomas Method: Mandarin Chinese Vocabulary Course (Michel Thomas Series)I am the author of the Michel Thomas courses to learn spoken Mandarin Chinese.When my ASL first assigned this text and I received it from Amazon, I thought, How will I ever learn ASL from this?I am now in the third week of classes. The teacher is OK but the book along with the DVD is better.Honestly, if I had to only learn from the teacher, I would know precious little. She is deaf and it is very hard for me and my fellow hearing students to understand her.I found another student to study with out of class. We both review the materials for each unit in this book on our own. Then we meet before class, after we have watched the relevant DVD portion on our own a few times, and go through the exercises together.You cannot learn ASL from a book even with a DVD.However, what you do learn can be corrected by someone who knows this language. Feedback is essential.Go to a deaf church service, work with a deaf person via skype, find someone who can give you feedback. It will really pay off.Some of the drawings in the book were a bit confusing. I found a book, Perigee Visual dictionary of signing, which details the signs and, best of all, gives mnemonics or memory aids to understand them and get them to stick.The more I go through the book, the more confusing the pictures are. If you Google ASL you will find several sites where the gestures are shown via free videos. Use them in conjunction with the book and DVD. I wonder how anyone can make sense of ASL solely from this book.There is no way to learn without practicing.Do a little each day. A little is worth a lot more than a lot infrequently.The book has exercises. Get to where you can comfortably express each sentence.Spend a little time reviewing the past lessons, learning new material and getting more familiar with ASL each day. It takes time so don't get discouraged at the beginning. This is a purely visual language and, for some,this may initially prove somewhat confusing.Do whatever you can do. That is enough even if you don't believe me!Be aware of how ASL expresses things. ASL does not equal English. It is a separate language and has its own grammar and syntax. This book will give you enough of this to get started.Above all, do not be too greedy in learning lots of stuff.Get to where you know the core vocabulary of signs. Use this over and over until it is second nature.Not even all deaf signers know all the signs.Learn finger spelling first of all. Then you can fingerspell whatever sign you don't know.Make sure you use facial expressions. Without them it is like you are speaking in a monotone; boring.Slowly, little by little, you will learn this wonderful, expressive language.

This book is easy to follow. My daughter & I took a basic signing class at our local college as she wanted to teach her baby how to sign so we could understand what she wanted before she had learned to speak. Not only did we learn sign language, but my granddaughter picked up on it very quickly and was signing by the time she was 5 months old. It's nice to be able to communicate --- even if it is just a word or phrase at that age! She was & continues to be a very easy going child. My grandson was taught to sign at 2 after an illness thwarted his speech. He picked up on it quickly (thank God) as it would get very frustrated when we didn't know what he wanted. Now he can sign and the frustration, tears, etc. have all but ceased.

I purchase this book with the intentions to learn the American Sign Language and it was the best investment I have ever had in my entire life. I recommend this book 100% best book to learn the language

The text is solid as a teaching resource but not something I would recommend. The DVD is poorly produced as an educational tool; the actors sign much too quickly for beginners, and it becomes a joke to students instead of a resource. Therefore, the DVD is unhelpful at best and harmful if you consider demoralizing effects of failure and frustration on student motivation to learn. This problem is particularly important because many of the picture definition entries in the text are difficult to decipher, and the DVD is little help in that regard.The text is not very engaging. It is comprised mostly of grammar rules and definition entries, with too few learning exercises to employ and practice the material. The indexes in the back of the book are poorly done for a textbook.It definitely outperforms the other "go-to" text people seem to use, Vista Signing Naturally (which has a lot of problems), but it's not a strong text. Neither text seems grounded in foundations of theory on education, or uses what is known from research in education and psychology about learning and memory, foreign language aquisition, etc. Lastly, it's expensive for what you get, especially the DVD.It took longer than expected to arrive, especially given that I have Prime service.

Kid needed it for college