British Sign Language: Teach Yourself: Book

Description

Do you want to be able to understand and use British Sign Language confidently? All you need is this best-selling course. Learn everyday, useful BSL through real-life situations that make the grammar and vocabulary easy and memorable. Hundreds of line illustrations throughout the book and constant references to video clips on the Teach Yourself library make learning fast and fun. British Sign Language (BSL) is used in the United Kingdom. The number of Deaf people in the UK using BSL has been put at about 50,000; there are in addition many more hearing people who use BSL to communicate with Deaf users. Sign languages are not related to spoken languages and BSL is completely different, for example, from American Sign Language. Sign language conveys meaning through the use of space and movement of the hands, body, face and head. We know that many hearing people are keen to learn BSL (it is a very popular evening class course, for example). But there is a lack of good teaching materials written in English for hearing learners of BSL, which this course fills. Get Started in British Sign Language follows the BSL curricula taught currently in colleges (Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People CACDP and Institute of BSL) and therefore will be able to be used as support material by learners, as well as providing a complete grounding in the structure and grammar of BSL. Flexible Learn in your own time and at your own pace Time saving Learn quickly with one- and five-minute essentials Expert Written by Deaf authors Informative Sections of Deaf culture Jargon-free Learn the grammatical features of BSL with ease Practical Reinforce your learning with examples and exercises Authentic Learn everyday BSL through real-life situations Video clips Video clips online on the Teach Yourself library Teach Yourself British Sign Language includes: Chapter 1: Starting out with BSL structure Chapter 2: More about Deaf people Chapter 3: BSL Structures Chapter 4: Deaf culture and BSL etiquette Chapter 5: Introduction to facial expressions Chapter 6: Asking 'wh-' questions Chapter 7: Asking 'yes'/'no' questions Chapter 8: More about questions Chapter 9: How to use facial expressions Chapter 10: BSL mouth patterns Chapter 11: Starting out with fingerspelling Chapter 12: Learning to fingerspell Chapter 13: Reading fingerspelling Chapter 14: Fingerspelling signs Chapter 15: Using fingerspelling in conversation Chapter 16: Other fingerspelt words: months Chapter 17: Starting out with placement Chapter 18: Describing a ro

Paul Redfern was Head of Community Development of the British Deaf Association for five years before becoming Chief Executive for Richmond Advice and Information on Disability. He has been very active in the training and teaching of Deaf and Disability Equality. Nicholas Callow and Laraine Callow are partners and co-directors of Deafworks, a specialised consultancy exclusively concerned with the social and legal issues around D/deafness. They have 25 years' teaching experience with Deaf children in day and residential special schools and in hearing-impaired units.

"By far the best on the market now . . . . I will be putting this book on my mandatory reading material for all my BSL Level 1 learners" - Sister M. Rebicsek - Amazon reviewer and BSL tutor "Well worth the investment " - Lucy - Amazon reviewer "I loved it because it fully covered the areas that most books I have tried missed, such as facial expressions to accompany the signs, as well as word ordering" - FeatherHammer - Amazon reviewer