For my learning project, I have decided to do American Sign Language (ASL). I have no experience in ASL and I do not know any signs. My baseline is at the very bottom. I decided to pick ASL for my learning project because I believe it is important in society to be more inclusive to those who cannot hear. Learning ASL would be beneficial to me to be able to connect with those who cannot hear or are hard of hearing. As a future educator, it will be important to communicate with students with simple signs to assist a student in a vast majority of ways or help them communicate with others. It is important to accommodate for students so they can communicate because everyone deserves to be able to communicate. Gaining the ability to use ASL will provide a level of comfort for deaf people who I come in contact with in the public, help me grow as a person and it does look good on a resume as a bonus.
I plan on using two different apps on my phone, SignSchool and the ASL APP to learn the basics, pictured below from screenshots off my phone,
I will also use other websites and sources such as signlanguage101, Youtube and TikTok. I believe this will be a difficult journey throughout the semester due to my lack of knowledge but I am ready to tackle this task.
My goal is to start with learning my ABC’s, counting numbers, how to introduce myself, popular sayings, feelings and greetings, and more as I continue my journey into ASL.