Basic Course in American Sign Language

This book acts as a dictionary and a grammar book.This book is old. Many deaf instructors will tell you that. However, it is a great buy. If you are going to start studying ASL this is a good book to have. Nice build up with grammar in each lesson. Look at the lesson's words first and then read the grammar exercises. I really like this book and I find it a lot better than some more used classroom books such as "signing naturally". Also, I have to say that as a starting out student in ASL, some books are not ASL and the beginning students will make some mistakes. This is a great ASL book. One draw back is that the pictures are a little hard to interpret sometimes. As such, this is a book you would want to look up signs that you for got. And a book that you would want to have to supplement a classroom experience so that you could check to see if you have the signs correctly down.

The book was used and it was in good shape. Would buy again from this seller.

Great resource for learning how to sign the purchase of this book it was great

This is a decent book if you want to learn proper ASL with all the nitty gritty. I don't know if it is the BEST book out there to do so, but I will tell you why it is for sure one of the good ones. Just to get the negatives out of the way: there are some issues with the illustrations in terms of clarity-- they can be a bit confusing sometimes with the more complicated signs. Luckily we are in the age of internet, so you can always double check that stuff. I'm not 100% sure that some of these signs are still valid--I worry about the 1994 publication date (since ASL evolves from time to time, but has variations between regions) These are the only reasons I didn't give it five stars-- I would otherwise. Nothing beats learning from another person, or watching videos, unfortunately. But, this suffices very, very well for alone practice. So, I would say, use this as a jumping off point and hold onto it for future reference. HOWEVER: below are some of the reasons I know this book to be a worthwhile resource:1) This book was assigned to me a few years ago when I was enrolled in ASL course, taught by a Deaf teacher (who has been profoundly Deaf her whole life). We worked out of it for three semesters, and I remember it being good. I'm not entirely sure what the Deaf community or interpreters as whole have to say about this particular book, but the fact that it was used by a Deaf person-- I think that pretty much makes a good enough case for it as an authentic, trusted resource. I trust my former teacher's judgement since she was also very instructive about Deaf Culture and History.2) The grammar, syntax, etc specific to ASL is well-acknowledged and well-utilized in the book's lessons. This is always the first way to judge an ASL instruction book of any kind. That bit kind of goes along with the previous reason, but I feel it's important to make special mention of this!! Why is this important? ASL isn't signed English at all (That's actually called "SEE"-- Signed Exact English--not at all the same thing). That being said, any book that just provides signs without a proper grammar/syntax/etc tool-belt isn't worth learning from. (If you're not convinced this is important, ask yourself: would you buy a book to learn French if it didn't provide proper instruction on how to actually use French words in sentences?...probably not, I bet! Words become useless without the language structure) If you're going to learn a language, learn it in its entirety from a trusted place. This book certainly gives you this information, which is great.3) This is a good book to use if you have already taken ASL before and have the annoying problem of remembering the motion of signs..... but have forgotten their meaning. I had this problem recently, and I bought this because I remembered this book had decent-ish illustrations. I have been using it mostly as a reverse dictionary when needed. But it isn't just a dictionary, there are some exercises, guidelines and examples given-- there's a lot included. This book has a sister work book. It is the same name, same author just "workbook" attached at the end of the title-- I still have that one, and that's more work/ practice exercise heavy than this one is (it lacks the dictionary part, which is why you need this one!) That is also a good investment.4) There's a really good section in the back that lists tons of other Deaf books for further reading (pertaining to all language, history and culture topics, etc)

I love this book!!! it bring me back some of my memories and its 1994. Best childhood!

My item was somehow missing for about a day and all of a sudden the item was in the mailbox room. It claimed the item had been delivered but actually didn’t arrive until the next day. It made me think either the package was stolen or it never got delivered. I have my book now. It’s in excellent condition and I am satisfied.

If you want to learn sign language and are unable to attend a class in person or online. I recommend this text. It's easy to follow. Progresses at a manageable pace. The images are mostly easy to read; there's a few that I don't know what's being signed and have to look it up online. It's also a great companion if you have taken some basic courses of ASL and want more practice.

Required text book for intro to sign language class. The book arrived quickly and was in perfect condition.

Arrived exactly as described, we celebrated condition for a used book. Shipping turnaround was great as well!

IMO, this is one of the best books for beginning American Sign Language. I bought a text back when I was in college in the early 90's & I just bought a newer edition last month in great condition from this seller.

Used this book for a course and still use it as a valuable resource

Awesome book, full of great instructions. We definitely found it more helpful having a teacher explaining it, it would have been harder without.

Easy to follow and the pictures are good quality.