Signing: How To Speak With Your Hands | 
 enlarge | Author: Elaine Phd Costello
Publisher: Bantam
Category: Book
List Price: $20.00
Buy Used: $4.99
You Save: $15.01 (75%)
New (13) Used (31) from $4.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 27247
Media: Paperback
Edition: Rev Upd Su
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 10.7 x 7.8 x 0.9
ISBN: 0553375393
Dewey Decimal Number: 419
EAN: 9780553375398
ASIN: 0553375393
Publication Date: August 1, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
American Sign Language is a wonderful silentlanguage of hands, face, and body that is rich withnuance, emotion, and grace. Bantam is proud topresent the newly revised Signing :How To Speak With Your Hands, acomprehensive and easy-to-use guide that has longbeen the invaluable and definitive guide forfamilies, friends, and professionals who need tocommunicate effectively with deaf children and adults. Nowthis expanded edition, with redesigned interiorsand updated material, includes even more signs;large, upper-torso illustrations clearly showformation and movement of the hands, and their relationto the face and body. All the beautifullyillustrated signs are accompanied by precise,easy-to-follow instructions on how to form them. This completeguide includes chapters on common phrases, thealphabet, foods and eating, health, recreation, andthe newest chapter covering technology, politics.education, and music.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Signing by book May 16, 2008
This book is really helpful in learning signs. It is a great tool to have when you are at places where you don't have access to learn by DVD/TV. It has a great index for quick searches. Elaine Costello mastered this piece of work. This book is also nice to have to practice with other people.
 Alright... October 10, 2007
This book is not as accurate as other ASL books out there... but it is alright for basic purposes; just be aware that some signs are signed English not ASL-- not a huge deal really.
Great Book very helpful information July 16, 2007
This is a great book with tons of helpful information inside. I use it to improve my knowledge of ASL.
Thanks.
I would recommend. April 1, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Great service!!! The order was shipped the same day it was received. This is the book suggested by my ASL teacher as it is the one she refers to while teaching.
Clear illustrations, helpful grammar notes - Great all-round intro! May 30, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
"Signing: How to Speak with your Hands" will serve many purposes on your signing bookshelf: it's a jam-packed dictionary, introductory grammar text, thorough guide to the non-manual aspects of signs, plus a little historical background thrown in for good measure.
Each dictionary-style entry not only depicts the sign clearly (both starting and ending handshapes), as most books do, but describes the handshape(s) and actions involved in text. PLUS, there is a written "hint" provided for many of the words defined (wherever possible, ie the more iconic or literal signs).
Example:
For EGG, the definition shows a picture of the start and end handshapes for the EGG sign. Text reads: "Begionning with the middle-finger side of the right hand across the index-finger side of the left "h" hand, drop the fingers down and apart from each other." The accompanying hint reads, "Hint: Breaking an egg into a bowl," which this motion resembles.
For SYRUP, the hint is "wiping syrup from the lips"; for FIRE, "shows flames rising."
This book groups words thematically into sections, not alphabetically, but rather in categories, like Health, Food, etc. Each section is a treasure-trove of signs, which may be overwhelming to the beginner, but which means the book will not quickly outlive its usefulness.
Each section begins with a few quick grammar points, and grammar is also integrated into the definitions wherever applicable. Grammar points cover topics like the signing space, symmetrical signs, placement and the nonmanual aspects of signing like repetition, emphasis and facial expression.
This book uses an extremely durable binding, which is perhaps its best feature, as you'll be referring to it again and again. It's built to last and will be a lasting addition to your ASL bookshelf for years to come.
NOTE: A previous reviewer has commented that this book over-emphasizes English grammar. I haven't seen that tendency in the book, however, it does perhaps under-emphasize ASL grammar. There is some discussion of noun-adjective order, and some discussion of use of tenses, but nothing I could find about ASL sentence order. I feel the book sidestepped this issue altogether so as to focus on imparting the basics of sign.
You will learn to speak with your hands, as the title suggests, however, if you're new to ASL, you'll probably need to move on eventually to a book that more comprehensively covers ASL sentence structure and "conversational" ASL.
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