Four-Letter Word Practice for American Sign Language Alphabet (ABC, ASL, fingerspelling)

[beannaichte123]

~ 5***** ~ Thank you, Rob! ~Blessings!

[ShallIComapreThee132]

Thank you so much for posting this. I have taught myself ASL over the summer, and recently started a class. This has been a great resource for me, allowing me to test my progress. Thanks!

[Corina1221]

this is very helpful keep it up 

[ashleighjayxo]

You're spelling the letters? why was there a y in four?

[BYUFanatic]

@ashleighjayxo Because the four-letter word I am spelling ends with the letter "Y."

[ashleighjayxo]

@BYUFanatic oh! sorry i didn't know what finger spelling was! what's number 10? looks like holk....

[Susana8896]

Thank you so much. Learning ASL and your lessons have been extremely helpful.

[BYUFanatic]

@Susana8896 You're very welcome!

[Borninthewrongdecad1]

This is amazing! My fingerspelling is rather fast due to a lot of practicing on my own, but my reading skills are far lacking. I was feeling discouraged until I saw that I could read what you were saying as entire words. Thanks for the great video!

[BYUFanatic]

@Borninthewrongdecad1 Glad I could help!

[allywkcat]

Sooo helpful. Thank You!

[BYUFanatic]

@allywkcat You're welcome!

[julietteagain]

STOP PICKING WEIRD WORDS.</3

[BYUFanatic]

@julietteagain I do it just to annoy you. *wink*

[vesterpop]

You have wonderful fingerspelling! I've been trying really hard to fingerspell more quickly and I think my problem is that I don't move my fingers big enough? Anyway, thanks for these videos. I'm glad to report that my fingerspelling has gotten a tiny bit better since I commented on the three-letter word practice video. :D

[BYUFanatic]

@vesterpop It's not about moving your fingers big. The important thing is accuracy. :) Glad you like the videos!

[alexwilbur]

Good for practice. Thx. My concern is that a lot of the words you chose to fingerspell have signs for them so I wouldn't have to "read" them in real life. Is there any way you would make a vid for fingerspelling receptive skills with words that would more commonly be spelled, like proper nouns?

[BYUFanatic]

@alexwilbur Actually, a lot of these words can be fingerspelled at any time. It's not about the particular words I chose but rather learning to recognize letter combinations. :)

[OHAITHEREITSME]

Your E's and O's look exactly the same.

[BYUFanatic]

@OHAITHEREITSME Take a closer look. the E has the index finger on the knuckle of the thumb while the O has all the fingertips touching. Check my ABC video for correct handshapes if you need clarification. Good luck!

[GsoPRO]

excellent vidoe but way too fast for me

[MightyMoran]

Thank you for providing a way for me to read fingerspelling!

[BYUFanatic]

@MightyMoran You're welcome! :)

[daysable]

Awesome video, I find it extremely helpful to sign along with you while watching your videos. Helps so much. At first I thought the speed was a little fast, but the more I practiced, the more saw your words as actual words and not just me spelling out letters in my head.

[BYUFanatic]

@daysable Yay! Glad it's coming together for you.l

[TheYoYoGirl2]

im both handed/ :) SCORE!!

[FluidSigner]

You are left handed just like me.

[BYUFanatic]

@FluidSigner Yep! That I am! *smile*

[Mannman1991]

@BYUFanatic

Me too!! I didn't realize there were many left-handed signers like me!! Most of my friends are right handed...

[sgrroseleaf]

just starting asl--love your teaching--very precise and descriptive. Can I access your videos without having to sort thru all others to find BYU???

[BYUFanatic]

@sgrroseleaf Glad you enjoy my teaching. When I'm unable to interact with the viewer, it's important that I be as clear and precise as possible. *smile* You can always access my videos simply by going directly to my channel or you can go to my website.

[sophakingsillier]

Thank you so much, I definitely will be using you for more practice! What great help!!! Thank you so much

[BYUFanatic]

@sophakingsillier Glad you like it! You're very welcome. *smile*

[lordsmyshepard15]

thanks for all the help i just might pass now ... we even use you as are warm up in class

[BYUFanatic]

@lordsmyshepard15 Awesome! Glad you're picking it up. *smile* Glad your teacher is using my videos as a warm-up too. That's GREAT!

[n4di4133]

wow I am getting it!! I'm getting it!! I feel so proud of myself

[BYUFanatic]

@n4di4133 Yay! I'm proud of you too! Keep it up!

[fuufii]

I am such a newbie, i mean i know the alphabets and all, but how he hand signs them still seems very fast for me. hahaha. i suck at this, totally!

[BYUFanatic]

@fuufii LOL. That's why I have these practice videos, so that you can learn to put all the letters together and see complete words. Keep practicing, you'll get it!

[melissaleigh16]

I'm in ASL 2 and I've never been able to master fingerspelling and I really believe this will help me. Its an awesome video, Thank you!!

[BYUFanatic]

Fingerspelling is always one of the hardest things to learn. Only by practicing over and over can we get good at it. So, keep practicing! *smile*

[layneylu]

This is so helpful! I want to be a deaf educator, and I'll be going to college in one year... so I need to learn ASL and FAST! and this is helpful practice. :)

[BYUFanatic]

I think that's a great goal to have! Good luck with your studies! FYI - I have a website specifically for teaching ASL. Feel free to check it out.

[JamieIsAwesome]

I'm taking a community college ASL course this summer, and practice like this is really giving me a head start. Thank you for creating such a helpful video.

[BYUFanatic]

You are very welcome! Good luck with your classes!

[neongreenllama]

Ahh, both of my boyfriend's parents are deaf so I'm making a whole effort to learn ASL. xD I bought a huge dictionary to learn a few words every day and then I come and practice this. It is slower than normal(like the video says) because I watch him sign to his mom and the way they fingerspell... Half the time I'm like "I'm still trying to figure out what the first letter was!!" and they're already finished with what they were saying. This is a lot of help. =] Thanks so much!!

[BYUFanatic]

Ha ha. Yes, the trick is definitely to catch the first and last letters and anything in between. *grin* Good luck with learning!

[joshsomebody57]

I'm planning on taking a Beginner's ASL course at my local community college here shortly. I also work part-time at a grocery store. Would it be considered rude if I signed what I was saying to customers as a way to practice?

[BYUFanatic]

It would not be considered rude, but your customers might look at you strangely. One thing that I'm sure you'll also learn from your college teacher is that ASL and English are not the same. So if you speak and sign at the same time, you'll be signing a more English rather than ASL type of signing.

[Bardoftoday]

this video helps me see how much of a newbie i am... and i'm in the 2nd level class

[BYUFanatic]

Ahhhh, you'll be fine. *smile* Just practice, practice, practice! Fluent fingerspelling is not a skill learned overnight. Good luck!

[kareblue]

good thing I know finger spelling ,,lol ah use to practice in mirror ,, on a bus ,,,, now I talk to meself all the time out loud,,,,..got to keep on going ....;o)

[BYUFanatic]

LOL. Keep up the practice!

[jakezaaq]

Hi, is it a problem if I sign with the right hand? I realized that every video they do with the left... jeez

[BYUFanatic]

LOL! Oh no! Now you have to go back and learn to do it with your left hand. JUST KIDDING. In ASL, simply use your "dominant" hand for most of your fingerspelling and signing. So, your right hand is just fine.

[cnaizhen]

@BYUFanatic Hmm, I will say that for any types of sign lanaguage, we will use our dominant hand to sign and fingerspell, not just ASL :)

[moonsticks]

Thank you very much! You are very helpful!

[BYUFanatic]

You're very welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.

[Banerika]

At first it was hard for me to tell the difference between an E and an O, too. But after a while I noticed the difference between those two handshapes, and now I can instantly distinguish between E and O. My advice is to keep watching fingerspelling. Eventually your eyes/brain will distinguish which is which.

[cardslax]

its really hard to tell the difference between your o's and e's

[BYUFanatic]

LOTS of practice will help with that. *smile* Pay close attention to the thumb positioning. Check out my "Lesson on American Sign Language Alphabet" video for proper placement and what to look for.

[morandapanda]

Not a bad video but you sign your E's and O's exactly the same. You have to crunch in your fingers more when you sign E and you can't touch your thumb to your four fingers.

Also this is definitely faster then "slow" speed for signing.

[BYUFanatic]

Oops. Messed up on my reply, let's see if I can do it again - Glad you liked the video. The way I sign the "E" is correct and is how all Deaf people (such as myself) do it. The way you described it is a common error made by students learning ASL. Check out my "Lesson on American Sign Language Alphabet" for the correct way to form the letters. The speed of the words signed is definitely slower than how the average Deaf person would sign them. Thanks for your comments!

[FullMelee]

i am a beginner. Nice vid 5 stars. Wow if that is slow then fast is like lightning.

[BYUFanatic]

Glad you like the video! Not to worry, with practice you'll be a pro. *smile*

[nopedamnit]

This is really great. I fingerspell well, but there's no one around to practice reading so I'm very lacking in that respect. I like the variety of words, but I'd suggest signing the word twice like you do, then showing what the word was and signing again. That way, people don't assume they have a word correct when they don't. At the very least, provide an answer sheet.

[BYUFanatic]

I've been asked to provide the answers. But as a teacher I'm aware that this is generally a bad idea. Reason is that when a student goes through it once or twice and they can't get it they just give up and look at the answers - and thus miss out on the learning opportunity. So, if you can't catch a word, go back to the 3-letter video and if that's too challenging try the ABC lesson first and just keep working your way up. Good luck!

[nopedamnit]

While I do understand the rational behind that decision, I still maintain that it would be best for students to still be able to check and see if their answers are correct. Even going back three or four times, a student may not be able to differentiate between "mass", "mess", and "moss", for example. It's very hard to learn if you aren't completely positive if you are correct or not.

[BYUFanatic]

Three and four times isn't enough. Once in a while I may have to spell (and re-spell) a word to a sign language interpreter a dozen times before they'll catch it. If someone who is a certified interpreter can't catch it after 3 or 4 times, then a student shouldn't be stressing out if they can't catch it either. Simply move on, practice with other words, go back and review the single letter videos, then come back later and try again. Smooth fingerspelling is one of the hardest things to master.

[nopedamnit]

What I am saying, though, is that the student isn't going to KNOW they're wrong. The interpreter has context with which to comprehend the word. If the word they think is being spelled doesn't fit, then they know it's the wrong word. Students using this type of practice aren't going to have the same advantage. I'm willing to bet that a large number of students are going to THINK they have the word correct and move on. This isn't really benefiting them as much as it could.

[BYUFanatic]

The trade-off to giving them the words is that they'll look at it maybe 2 or 3 times, then go straight to the answers to check. This means they get minimal "receptive skills" practice. I'd MUCH rather that they look at it dozens of times trying to figure out the word, than providing an answer sheet for them. There is no answer sheet in the real world, so they need to get in the habit of developing their receptive skills now. I do understand where you're coming from and appreciate your comments.

[dumbunny8128]

@BYUFanatic I enjoy your videos. Regarding answers, many math textbooks have a mix of problems with answers and problems without. If you have time, I would like to see you create a similar video with answers at the end. See which video is more popular after a few months. Is it better for 1000 people to watch a lesson 12 times each or 4000 people to watch a lesson 3 times each?

[BYUFanatic]

@dumbunny8128 That's a good suggestion. I actually do have "answers in the back of the book" for these fingerspelling videos. To get the answers, simply sign up for Month One on my website.

[Banerika]

It's true, students often don't know when they're wrong. But finding out they're wrong by checking the answers isn't as helpful as discovering they're wrong all by themselves. I've done that with this video! I realized after watching many times that I'd gotten a few wrong.

[ASLLearning]

Good stuff. I wrote down my answers and plan to go back and practice the words. Thanks.

[BYUFanatic]

You're very welcome!

[ccbmoapa]

It's good but he goes too fast for me.

[Banerika]

ccbmoapa, try watching it over and over, and pause it if you need to, that works.

[BYUFanatic]

Practice with the three-letter word video until you're ready for the challenge of this four-letter word video. These videos are meant to be challenging. If they were easy it wouldn't force you to grow and improve. *smile*

[gyo280]

I love this, its perfect. Exactly what i've been looking for. Def deserves a five star. Thanks man!

[BYUFanatic]

I'm glad you like these videos. *smile* That's why I created them - to give others the opportunity to learn ASL with higher quality, more accurate videos than much of what you'll find on YouTube. Feel free to check out my website!

[rododva]

I can't thank you enough for these vids! I haven't found anything that has worked for me like these have. It is hard to find teachers, and this is working great for me.

[dcmpnad]

Thanks for the comment on the DCMP channel, and for the offer to use your videos on our site! You've got a great collection of resources here!

[BYUFanatic]

You are very welcome! I've enjoyed what DCMP offers and have used their services in the past. So, I thought I would return the favor. *smile*

[Banerika]

Here's something that helps for hearing people--don't think "B-U-C-K" (pronouncing the individual letters in your head, ie. "Bee" "You" "See" "Kay") when you watch it. Instead, when you see B, sound it out in your head (ie. the sound B makes, "Buh"), just like you are a child learning how to read. Doing that seems to make it easier/faster to read fingerspelling.

[Banerika]

This is just something that helps *me*, personally, by the way. It may not be the right way for others to learn, but I thought I'd share it anyway, just in case.

[tjm13088]

could someone make a list of the 50 words he signed. that would be a great help for me! thanks!

[BYUFanatic]

No, no, no. Please do not provide "tjm" with a list of words. There is no word list for a very specific reason - so that you can LEARN to read the fingerspelling! If you are given a word list, then you already know what the words are and you won't have to figure them out. If this one is too hard, try the 3-letter words and then come back to this one. Good luck!

[carolinabugable]

Great stuff, thanks for the help!

[BYUFanatic]

You're very welcome. Glad you like. Got plenty more still coming! *smile*

[Banerika]

Some I got right away, while others I had to replay a few times. I know this is still slower than normal speed, but it sure was hard for me, like learning to read all over again. Anyway, great video, and I look forward to more like this! 5 stars!

[Banerika]

This is fantastic! What a great idea. I really need the practice reading fingerspelling.