1. By Annie Cassell ASL 1

2.  ASL is not actually signed in English  ASL is a language that uses movement instead of sound for communication  ASL comes from French Sign Language in the 1800s ASL IS NOT SIGNED IN ENGLISH

3.  ASL came from the American Deaf School in 1817  A man named Thomas Gallaudet traveled to France to learn how to teach deaf children because his daughter was deaf.  He brought back Laurent Clerc, a deaf teacher from France, and together they founded the American School for the Deaf in Connecticut.  Because of Clerc, the ASL was influenced greatly by French Sign Language ASL BACKGROUND

4.  1960s-A professor at Gallaudet University, William Stokoe, proved that ASL was its own language because it had its own syntax, grammar, and morphology as other spoken languages do.  His books, Sign Language Structure and A Dictionary on American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles, changed peoples opinion on American Sign Language. ASL CONTINUED TO EVOLVE

5.  We speak the same language as Britain so if you took BSL(Britain Sign Language) and tried to sign it to people who use ASL we wouldn’t understand most things because ASL comes from a French background.  ASL is completely separate and distinct from English. It has its own parameters(or ways to do it). It’s much different then English in the way you say a statement or ask a question. ASL IS NOT ENGLISH FACTS