For Hearing People Only Chapter 14 "Fingerspelling"
Chapter 14 talks about finger spelling, it talks about ways to strengthen your hands, as well as practice methods to become a better finger speller. The opener of this chapter is a statement from an ASL student. This student says that he is having trouble "reading" other's fingerspelling, he also says that his fingerspelling is slow. I can really relate to this student, I know the letters and their forms but it is difficult for me to read other's fingerspelling when they are signing very fast. I try to look for the "shape" of the word, as my professor taught our class but it it still difficult. The student in the beginning of chapter 14 also mentioned that he was a slow finger speller. I can relate to this as well, I practice often in front of a mirror and I seem to me getting quicker and more accurate but when I start fingerspelling to another person in class or lab I get nervous and mess letters up.
As I mentioned, I do practice often in front of the mirror this method is mentioned in the book. I would like to begin practicing with another person, I need to get more comfortable signing with others because I get nervous and forget the basics. This even happened during the midterm when another person wasn't even in the room! I just need to find a way to relax and just sign. I like the suggestion in the book, to set "aside a half- hour every day for practice." I was thinking while reading this chapter about practicing in front of my web cam so that I could re watch it and try to catch any errors that I might not if I were just in front of the mirror.
One concept this chapter talked about was hand strength. It mentioned doing "exercises" like squeezing a stress ball to strengthen the hand. Eventually strengthening the hand will hopefully help me become a better fingerspeller.
Fingerspelling is hard for me because I get so nervous. When I am signing with the mirror I don't worry about if I am going to slow or if if mess a letter up, but when i begin signing with another person I get stressed out over each letter i mess up, or I worry about spelling too slow. I just need practice more so I become more comfortable while signing.
We are in the same boat when it comes to fingerspelling. When I am practicing on my own I feel like I do everything correctly and Ia m fine. When I am trying to fingerspell in front of other people I almost go completely blank. I get nervous and stress myself out. I think with practice and with more one-on-one interaction in class we will eventually get the hang of it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the both of you. I am also having trouble with fingerspelling. Especially when the finger spelling is so fast. During our quizzes I usually just catch the first and last part of the word and make a guess. If there wasn't a category I would be completely lost. I'm a slow fingerspeller too and when others finger spell sometimes I have to decipher what letter they are making because not everyone fingerspells the same.
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