ASL Skills Development: A Review

Interpreter’s Resource Shelf (appeared in RID VIEWS January, 2008, reprinted with permission)
Kathy MacMillan, NIC, M.L.S.

This latest entry in the Effective Interpreting Series inaugurates its line of American Sign Language skills development materials. Like the excellent English skills set that precedes it, the ASL materials are designed to help students build intralingual competency in ASL before focusing on interlingual skills. The Teacher’s Set contains everything in the Study Set, along with detailed suggestions for classroom use of the materials and guidelines for assessment. We all know that learning to sign does not guarantee comprehension, and Patrie has assembled a line-up of practical materials that focus on solid strategies for receptive and expressive skill enhancement. Topics include discourse paraphrasing, distinguishing main from supporting ideas, differences in form and meaning, lexical substitution, and summarization. The accompanying DVD contains source texts presented in ASL, and students are encouraged to compose their responses in ASL to maintain the focus on intralingual processing. Also to that end, the book presents screen captures instead of glosses whenever possible. The series will eventually have 5 ASL volumes to match the English series: ASL Skills Development, Cognitive Processing Skills in ASL, Translating from ASL, Consecutive Interpreting from ASL, and Simultaneous Interpreting from ASL. With a great grounding in theory, a step-by-step plan for skill development, and a slew of practical, hands-on exercises and materials, this set is ideal for classroom use or self-study, especially for interpreters in the “gap” between formal schooling and real-world experience.

ASL Skills Development, Teacher’s Set on DVD by Carol J. Patrie. DawnSignPress, 2007. ISBN 1-58121-107-4. $84.95.
ASL Skills Development, Study Set on DVD by Carol J. Patrie. DawnSignPress, 2007. ISBN 1-58121-108-2. $64.95.

This column appears monthly in VIEWS. Please direct questions, comments, or suggestions for resources to highlight in future issues to Kathy MacMillan at info@kathymacmillan.com.