American Sign Language

The best resources for learning American Sign Language are not hard to find because we have investigated and researched and found them for you!

If you are someone that learns best by reading, then Diane Chambers' book Communicating in Sign: Creative Ways to Learn American Sign Language (ASL) (A Flying Hands Book) is your best bet. By far the most practical, it teaches effectively and also educates culturally, helping those in the hearing world understand the differences and adapt to the deaf culture.

Couple that teaching aid with the most extensive and consistently highly rated dictionary, The Canadian Dictionary of ASL, and you'll be ready to dive in and start practicing.

Ideally, if you could be in a group or get a group of learners together to carry out the exercises Diane Chambers lays out, that would be the best... but it is also fine if you are on your own and while learning don't want to stick out too much as a 'tourist' in the deaf world.

Internet Freebies:

Here is a most excellent free resource - an online visual American Sign Language dictionary. You can look up a word and see a video of how to sign it, along with a written description and explanation of the theory behind the sign and its meaning.

Internet Freebies:

In addition to the online visual dictionary mentioned above, there is a wealth of free video information and ASL tutorials available on the internet. For example, on Youtube.com.

Take the following two videos as an example. With one, you can learn how to sign the letters of the alphabet. With the second video, you will learn to ask "How do you sign --- ?" (then you spell out the word you want to learn to sign).

With this little formula you could simply dive in and learn this language the nitty gritty way - learn from real life and by communicating and interacting with the deaf and hard of hearing. Try it!

Have you had the experience of learning ASL? If so we'd love to hear about which resources you have found or are finding useful.

Please e-mail us your findings using the form below. Your shared language learning experiences will save other language learners' time, energy, and money. In fact, that is the the mission of Live & Learn Languages!