American Sign Language

Best Known as The Garden Books, the American Sign Language books provide teachers and students of American Sign Language (ASL) with the complete means for learning the culture, community, and the native language of deaf people. A group of 15 ASL teachers and linguists reviewed all five books to ensure that they were accurate and easy to comprehend. Drawing upon linguistic research and the methods developed in the field of second/foreign language instruction, including their own resources and experiences, authors Baker-Shenk and Cokely have developed an interactive approach to teaching and evaluating ASL supported by numberous activities and techniques in a six-course curriculum. The continuing popularity of these teacher resources and course texts proves their effectiveness as unique guides on teaching Deaf culture and ASL, and learning to understand and sign ASL. This practical textbook details the framework for understanding and using second-language teaching techniques for ASL. Using this interactive approach to teaching language, instructors can create situations to help students learn how to converse in ASL. Conducting dialogues and drills in the classroom is explained fully; activities and exercises to supplement dialogues and drills in student textbooks are provided.