Learning Objectives
- Explain what American Sign Language (ASL) is — a complete, natural language with its own grammar — and how it differs from English and from signed-English systems.
- Recognise that sign languages are not universal, and that ASL is distinct from other sign languages such as British Sign Language (BSL).
- Describe basic Deaf culture and etiquette for respectful, effective communication.
- Identify and apply the five parameters of every sign: handshape, palm orientation, location, movement, and non-manual markers.
- Form and name the common foundational handshapes used throughout this course (B, 5, 1, A, S, C, and O).
- Build a personal practice routine that pairs this written material with reputable ASL video resources.
What American Sign Language Really Is
American Sign Language is the primary language of the Deaf community in the United States and most of anglophone Canada. It is a full, natural human language: it has its own vocabulary, its own grammar, its own regional variation, and its own community of native users who acquire it from birth. It is expressed with the hands, the face, and the body, and it is perceived with the eyes rather than the ears. None of that makes it a simplified code or a set of gestures — it makes it a language in a different modality.
American Sign Language (ASL) — a complete, natural visual-gestural language used by Deaf and hard-of-hearing communities in the U.S. and much of Canada, with its own grammar and vocabulary independent of English.
One of the most important ideas to carry through this entire course is this: ASL is not English on the hands. It is its own language. Its word order, its grammar, and the way it packs meaning into a single sign are different from spoken or written English. A fluent ASL sentence is not a one-for-one translation of an English sentence — it is a thought expressed natively in a visual language.
Key Principle
Learn ASL as its own language, not as a way to "spell out" English with your hands. Trying to map every English word onto a sign, in English order, will slow you down and make you harder to understand.
ASL vs. Signed English Systems
You may encounter systems such as Signing Exact English (SEE) or "Pidgin Signed English" (sometimes called contact signing). These borrow ASL handshapes but arrange them in English word order, often inventing extra signs for English grammar (like word endings or articles). These systems are tools for representing English visually — they are not the same as ASL, and they are not what the Deaf community uses as its native language. This course teaches ASL itself.
Signed English — any manual system (such as SEE) that uses signs in English grammatical order to encode the English language, as opposed to ASL, which has its own independent grammar.
Sign Languages Are Not Universal
A common misconception is that there is one worldwide sign language. There is not. Sign languages developed naturally in Deaf communities around the world, and they differ from one another just as spoken languages do. ASL and British Sign Language (BSL), for example, are mutually unintelligible — a fluent ASL signer and a fluent BSL signer generally cannot understand each other, even though both countries speak English. ASL is actually historically related to French Sign Language, not to BSL.
⚠ Important
Do not assume the signs you learn here will work in another country. ASL is specific to the U.S. and much of Canada. British Sign Language, Auslan (Australia), and others are entirely separate languages with different vocabularies and even a different manual alphabet.
A First Look at Deaf Culture and Etiquette
Language and community go together. The Deaf community is a rich cultural group with shared values, history, art, and social norms. Learning ASL respectfully means learning a little about that culture from the very beginning. A widely used convention is to write "Deaf" with a capital "D" when referring to the cultural and linguistic community, and lowercase "deaf" when referring simply to the audiological condition of not hearing.
Deaf culture — the shared values, social norms, history, and artistic traditions of the community of people who use sign language as a primary language, often written with a capital "D."
Here are foundational etiquette habits to practise from your first conversation:
- Get a person's attention politely — a light tap on the shoulder or arm, a wave within their line of sight, or (in a group setting) flicking the lights. Do not grab, startle, or poke aggressively.
- Maintain eye contact while signing and watching. In ASL conversation, eye contact is normal and expected — looking away can read as inattentive or rude.
- Keep your hands, face, and upper body visible and well lit. Avoid signing in a dim room or with your back to a window.
- If you must walk between two people who are signing, a brief, low pass with a quick "excuse me" is fine — signers expect it and do not consider it rude.
- Be patient and willing to repeat or fingerspell. Communication is a two-way effort, and Deaf people are usually generous with patient learners.
- Do not speak over or "talk for" a Deaf person. When an interpreter is present, address the Deaf person directly, not the interpreter.
Key Principle
Respect and willingness to communicate matter more than perfect technique. A beginner who is patient, attentive, and humble is welcomed; fluency comes with time.
The Five Parameters of Every Sign
This is the framework the entire course is built on. Every single sign in ASL is made up of the same five building blocks, called parameters. If you change even one parameter, you can change the meaning of a sign entirely — or turn it into nonsense. Learning to notice all five at once is the single most important skill for a beginner.
Parameters — the five core components that define every ASL sign: handshape, palm orientation, location, movement, and non-manual markers.
1. Handshape
The shape your hand makes — for example a flat hand, a fist, or a single pointing finger. Many handshapes are named after letters and numbers of the manual alphabet (the "B" hand, the "5" hand, and so on).
2. Palm Orientation
Which way the palm faces — toward you, away from you, up, down, or to the side. Two signs can share a handshape and location yet mean different things based only on which way the palm points.
3. Location
Where the sign is made in relation to the body — at the forehead, the chin, the chest, or in neutral space in front of you. Location often carries meaning (signs near the forehead often relate to thinking; signs near the chin often relate to speaking or taste).
4. Movement
How the hand moves — a tap, a circle, a twist, a path through space, or a repeated motion. Movement is the parameter that text struggles most to capture, so it is the one you must confirm with video.
5. Non-Manual Markers
Everything the face and body add — raised or furrowed eyebrows, head tilt, mouth shape, and posture. These are grammar, not decoration: they signal questions, negation, intensity, and more.
Non-manual markers (NMM) — facial expressions, eyebrow position, head and body movements that carry grammatical meaning in ASL, such as marking a question or showing negation.
Example
Non-manual markers do real grammatical work. To ask a yes/no question, you typically raise your eyebrows and lean slightly forward while signing. To ask a "wh-" question (who, what, where, why), you typically furrow your eyebrows. The hands can be identical — the eyebrows tell the watcher whether you are stating something or asking it.
⚠ Important
Beginners often "freeze" their faces because they are concentrating on their hands. A flat, expressionless face in ASL is like a flat monotone in speech — at best it is hard to understand, and at worst it changes your meaning. Treat your face as part of the sentence from day one.
Common Basic Handshapes
Before you learn vocabulary, you need a small library of handshapes in your hands. Most beginning signs are built from a handful of shapes, many of them borrowed from the letters and numbers of the manual alphabet. Below are the foundational handshapes you will use constantly in this and later lessons. Form each one slowly and check it against a video — a handshape that is "almost right" is the most common beginner error.
B hand (flat hand)
All four fingers straight and together, thumb folded flat across the palm. A flat "paddle" of a hand. Used in many signs and as the basis for flat-hand movements.
5 hand (open hand)
All five fingers spread wide and extended, including the thumb. A relaxed, open, spread hand. Common in signs involving openness, spreading, or the whole hand.
1 hand (index)
Index finger extended straight up, the other fingers and thumb closed into the palm. This is the basic pointing hand, used for pointing (indexing) and for the number one.
A hand (fist with thumb)
A closed fist with the thumb resting alongside the curled index finger, not tucked inside. A compact, "knocking" fist shape.
S hand (closed fist)
A tight fist with the fingers curled into the palm and the thumb crossing in front of the fingers. A firm, fully closed fist.
C hand
Fingers and thumb curved to form the shape of the letter C, leaving a clear open gap as if holding a cup. Used in signs that involve cups, cylinders, or the letter C.
O hand
Fingertips and thumb brought together to touch, forming a rounded "O" with a small hole through the centre. Used in signs involving roundness or the letter and number associations of O.
⚠ Important
The small differences matter. The A hand (thumb up alongside the fist) and the S hand (thumb wrapped across the front) look similar but are different handshapes used in different signs. Likewise, the C hand has an open gap while the O hand is closed into a small hole. Practise switching cleanly between them.
Practising the Handshapes
- Watch a reputable ASL video for each handshape and freeze the frame so you can see the exact finger and thumb positions.
- Form the handshape with your dominant hand, then check it against the video — look at your thumb especially, since that is where most shapes differ.
- Hold the shape for a few seconds so your hand learns the position, then relax and reform it from scratch.
- Cycle through B → 5 → 1 → A → S → C → O slowly, then a little faster, keeping each shape crisp.
- Repeat the whole set with your non-dominant hand so both hands learn the shapes.
Key Principle
Choose a dominant hand and be consistent. In one-handed signs, you sign with your dominant hand; in many two-handed signs, the dominant hand is the one that moves while the non-dominant hand holds still. Pick the hand that feels natural and stick with it.
Why You Must Practise With Video
Written descriptions can teach you what ASL is, how its grammar works, where a sign is located, and what handshape to use. What text cannot fully capture is movement and the live timing of facial expression — and those are real, meaning-bearing parts of the language. This is not a weakness to work around; it is simply how a visual language works.
⚠ Important
Never learn a sign from a written description alone. Always watch the sign performed and confirm it against a reputable, well-established ASL video dictionary or a qualified Deaf instructor. If a sign feels ambiguous in text, that is your cue to go watch it, not to guess.
- Pair every lesson in this course with a video of the signs being performed.
- Confirm vocabulary against a reputable ASL video dictionary that shows native or fluent signers.
- Watch each sign more than once, and watch the signer's face and movement, not only the handshape.
- When possible, practise with Deaf signers or in an ASL class — real interaction is the best teacher.
- Record yourself signing and compare it to the model video to catch handshape and movement errors.
How the Rest of This Course Builds on This Lesson
This lesson is the foundation. Every later lesson assumes you can think in terms of the five parameters and form the basic handshapes. Here is the road ahead:
Basic Finger-spelling and Numbers
Builds directly on the handshapes here, completing the full manual alphabet and the number signs you will use to spell names and give quantities.
Basic Greetings and Introductions
Your first real conversations — using parameters and non-manual markers to say hello, introduce yourself, and meet people.
Basic Nouns and Locations
Names for people, places, and things, and how ASL uses space and location to organise meaning.
Basic Verbs
Action signs, where movement (a parameter you met here) does much of the grammatical work.
Basic Adjectives and Descriptors
Describing things — where facial expression and non-manual markers add degree and intensity.
Family and Relationships
Vocabulary for people in your life, including signs that often combine handshapes and locations you now recognise.
Basic Time and Calendar
Telling time, days, and dates — where the location of a sign relative to the body can signal past, present, and future.
General Phrases
Putting it all together into useful everyday expressions and short conversations.
Key Takeaways
- ASL is a complete, natural language with its own grammar — it is not English on the hands and not a signed-English system.
- Sign languages are not universal; ASL is distinct from BSL and other sign languages, and signs do not transfer between them.
- Respectful Deaf etiquette — polite attention-getting, eye contact, good lighting, and patience — matters as much as technique.
- Every sign has five parameters: handshape, palm orientation, location, movement, and non-manual markers; change one and you can change the meaning.
- Non-manual markers (especially eyebrows) are grammar — raised brows for yes/no questions, furrowed brows for "wh-" questions.
- The core beginner handshapes are B, 5, 1, A, S, C, and O; small thumb and gap differences distinguish them.
- Text cannot fully convey movement and timing — always confirm signs with a reputable ASL video dictionary or a qualified instructor.
UKPRN 10092631