Well,this month I have created a few more videos to help ASL Level 2 students.
I made two versions - one 3 minutes long and bother 8 minutes long about
a fishing trip from Signing Naturally Level 2 book.
Todd's Fishing Trip - 3 minutes version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWp2sX15XF8&feature=related
Todd's Fishing Trip - 8 minutes version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w70CkOWfGUs&feature=related
These ASL stories focuses on learning how to role shift, use of ASL classifiers (hand shapes that represents nouns - a person, place or things), conjunctions, verb inflections of continual, repeatedly modals, and adjective modulations and emoting.
How to study ASL videos to benefit fully for your receptive and expressive skills:
Like in all languages - you learn from imitation. Think how a baby or toddler learns hir native language.
1. Watch the videos several times just to become familiar with the motions, facial expressions (NMS), and mime.
2. Mimic the facial expression only.
3. Mimic the signs as best as you can - don't worry about catching everything - just mimic whatever you can grasp.
4. Then take a break for a few hours.
5. Come back and watch once more - softly copying whatever you can copy-cat.
6. Try to repeat the story by yourself without any aid of papers or video.... see how much you can remember on your own.
Laugh at your silly stumbling - yet keep at it. Notice that most children do not give up every time they fall down when mastering to walk. The same with any new foreign language students... keep at it until it starts to flow.
Take advantage of these free videos to guide you. Over time, you'll finally will start getting the hang of ASL grammar -
it's best to fluently memorize short easy sentences and then realize that the way to advance oneself, is to add more details.
Example:
Simple sentence: (ASL Gloss) - Tree, rain-pour, leaves wet.
Intermediate sentence: (ASL) - Tall, green tree, rain-pour, spring leaves wet.
Advance sentence: (ASL) - Tall, green maple tree, hot summer rain-pour, rivers of raindrops drizzle-down-tree-bark, bright shiny green leaves wet.
Lastly, be very patient with yourself as you make steady progress. Do your homework faithfully, invest at least 3 to 4 hours on weekly basis to feel comfortable repeating the same stories/sentences/assignment until it flows/feels fluent. Fluency also means REMEMBERING all the details and technical aspects of stitching an ASL story together.
Hope these tips will give you a great boost for your ASL learning journeys!
Happy Winter Solstice and a wonderful festive New Year!
To read my blogs that I write once a month - go to my website: www.ASLmasterTutor.com and click on the tab of My Blog. Lots of helpful tips to improve your signing skills.