General Purpose: To inform the audience of this complex language and the steps involved in signing a sentence.
Specific Purpose: By learning how to sign a sentence, we can see that sign language is just as expressive as spoken language.
Introduction
1. Attention Getter: (Sign the sentence “The birds sit on the fence.)
Do you know what I just said? Talking with our hands is something we all do without even thinking about it. Hand motions for the most of us are an addition to spoken language. But for the deaf and hard of hearing hand motions isn’t just an addition, it is their primary way of communication.
2. I’m not fluent in sign language but I have been very interested in it for years. I have been teaching myself and recently just started attending classes. I have also learned more by researching for this speech.
3. First I would like to give you a little background about sign language. Then I would like to teach you how to sign the sentence I showed you in the beginning. The birds sit on the fence. By teaching you this sentence I hope to show you that sign language is just as expressive as spoken language.
Transition: Let’s move on to the background.
Body
4. ASL is a complex language that involves signs made by the hands combined with facial expressions. American Sign Language usually doesn’t sign every word in a sentence but it makes a picture. You will see this later on in the speech with a demonstration.
5. The exact beginnings of ASL are not clear. But the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders state some suggest that over 200 years ago it arose by intermixing local sign language and French Sign Language. According to the CDC the United States has an estimate of 100,000 to 1 million people that use ASL as their primary language. Most sources state that ASL is the third most used non English language in the US.
6. Some people would say that ASL is
Cited: March 31, 2013 http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/pages/asl.aspx Barnett S, McKee M, Smith SR, Pearson TA. Deaf sign language users, health inequities, and public health: opportunity for social justice. Prev Chronic Dis 2011;8(2):A45. http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2011/mar/10_0065.htm. March 31, 2013 Ross E Office on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, 3895 Beasley Road, Jackson, MS 39213 http://www.odhh.org/faq/#14 April 1, 2013