Kategoria BISAC: Language Arts & Disciplines >> Sign Language

Tabak has created a fascinating exploration of a unique and uniquely beautiful North American language. The story begins in 18th century France in the first schools to use signed language as the language of instruction. Early in the 19th century a few individuals introduced a variant of this language into the United States and developed an educational system in which to use it. Out of these schools come members of a new American social class, the Deaf--with a capital D--who, united by a common signed language, create institutions through which they can participate in society on terms equal...

- Pets and animals

- Sports and hobbies

- Travel and holidays

- Snacks and food

- Numbers and money

- Clothes and colors

- Nature and science

- Time and weather

- School and careers

- And much more

After English and Spanish, it is the third most common language in North America. Over 22 million people use it to communicate. It has its own beauty, its own unmistakable form, and its own inherent culture. It is American Sign Language (ASL), the language of the deaf.

Gabriel Grayson has put together a book that makes signing accessible, easy, and fun. Using almost 1,400 photographs, he has created a comprehensive primer to the techniques, words, and phrases of signing. Each word or phrase is accompanied by a photo or series of photos that show hand and body motions and facial...

"Listen with your eyes . . .

Sign Language is a method of presenting thoughts via pictures made with one's hands."

People are adaptable. This trait is particularly useful when one of the five senses is weakened and another becomes more acute to compensate for the weakness. So the deaf, when they hear, hear with their eyes. To communicate to the deaf, then, is to translate the speech of the hearing world into the pictures of the seeing world.

"It is an amazing truth that Dr. Cathy Rice has had more influence on the ministry to the deaf, through her teaching of Sign...