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Overview:
When we think of language, we tend to think in terms of written or verbal communication. Still, we all use hand gestures from time to time to express ideas or emotions. Many people, however, for professional or physical reasons, rely on more formal hand signals and signs. Standardized signals are a limited means of communication used in certain circumstances, such as by football referees or on the floor of the stock exchange.
Sometimes, however, hand signs form a complex primary language, such as American Sign Language (known as ASL or AMSLAN) and British Sign Language (BSL), used by deaf persons in the United States and Great Britain. This lesson is designed to broaden the students' appreciation not only for how humans communicate, but for how we circumvent obstacles to communication as well.
Connections to the Curriculum:
Geography, social studies, and language arts
Connections to the National Geography Standards:
Standard 4: "The physical and human characteristics of places"
Standard 6: "How culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions"
Standard 10: "The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics"
Time:
Two to four hours (may require more time for study, preferably as homework)
Materials Required:
- Computer with Internet access
- Writing materials
- Chalk and chalkboard or markers and flip chart
Objectives:
Students will
- distinguish between hand gestures, standardized hand signals, and formal sign languages; and
- identify groups of people who routinely use hand signals or sign languages and the reasons why.
Geographic Skills:
Asking Geographic Questions
Acquiring Geographic Information
Organizing Geographic Information
Answering Geographic Questions
Analyzing Geographic Information
S u g g e s t e d P r o c e d u r e
Opening:
Discuss with students the fact that most of us use our hands to express ourselves when we speak, and that every culture has recognized hand gestures that are understood as clearly as spoken words. Ask students for polite examples of gestures that we use in the United States.
This lesson focuses on more conscious and systematic uses of hands to communicate, and how these hand sign systems relate to what are commonly thought of as "languages." That is, to systematic means of communicating by the use of agreed upon sounds or, in these cases, conventional symbols.
Development:
Activity 1:
Ask students to look at Football Officials' Hand Signals and Chicago Mercantile Exchange: Hand Signal Examples. After students have examined those sites, ask them if they could communicate all their daily interactions with others using either or both of those sets of signals alone. For example, ask which signal indicates a personal foul in football, and then how they would use referees' hand signals to indicate that a personal foul will be made or should be made. [Neither can be expressed.] Ask another student how the referee would use those signals to indicate his pleasure or displeasure that a foul has occurred. Then ask how a person on the floor of the futures exchange would indicate that she wants to offer fifty contracts, ending in June. Ask how she would indicate that desire, but only if the market appears to be moving in a positive direction for three consecutive weeks. [This also can't be expressed.]
Ask students which of the two sets of hand signals—the one for the football field or the one for the futures exchange—they think is more complex. Ask a student to use the set of signals he or she believes to be more complex to express one of the following ideas: "My client needs to sell these stocks because he's almost broke," or "Time out, because there's a cheerleader on the field." How about, "I am going to wait a year before going to college, because my mother broke her leg and can't work, and I have to bring in some money to help pay the mortgage!" Obviously, neither set of signals could be used to express these ideas, so ask what conclusions can be reached about the adequacy of these sets of hand signals.
Ask students to look up the definition of "language", and consider especially definition 1b(2): "[language is] a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings." What aspects(s) of that definition of language are missing from the hand signals used on the football field or the floor of the futures market? For example, can either set of signals express "feelings"?
Ask students if they know of an actual "language" of hand signs that can express all the thoughts and feelings that spoken English does? They will doubtless suggest the sign language of the deaf. Explain that there is more than one of these languages for the deaf.
Activity 2:
Divide the students into two groups, and ask members of each group to familiarize themselves as much as possible with either the finger spelling and signs of ASL or of BSL.
- Ask students in the ASL group to look at the ASL alphabet online. Using the finger spelling illustrated on that page, ask them to sign "I feel sad." (Suggest that they click on "Want to see finger spelling in action?" to see how to indicate double letters.) Point out that they are spelling out standard spoken English, letter by letter. Then have the students go to A Basic Dictionary of ASL Terms and scroll about halfway down the page to find the text, "Click on a letter below to get to the corresponding dictionary page." Ask them to click on the individual letters to find out how to sign "I feel sad" in ASL. [Note: If they have trouble with the site, instruct them to click on the letter "I." Then find the word "I" on the list, and click on it. It will then be the first word that appears on a list of words, with arrows, sketches of the signs, and written descriptions of how to make the signs and the reasoning behind their structure. If they click on the underlined word next to the arrow, they will be able to see a person in motion, making the sign. Continuing on, under "f" make sure they choose "feel1" to indicate emotion. Finally, under the letter "s," find the sign for sad.]
- Ask the students in the BSL group to do the same, using the British Sign Language alphabet and/or finger spelling machine or another online resource.
Give students plenty of time to familiarize themselves with the finger spelling and signs, perhaps even as a homework assignment.
Activity 3:
Let students from the two groups work together to compare and contrast finger spelling in ASL and BSL. Ask them to discuss if they would conclude that ASL and BSL are two separate languages, such as French and Spanish are, or are merely two different ways to communicate in English.
Next, ask them to compare and contrast ASL and BSL signs and consider the same question.
Give students time to debate that question as a class.
Closing:
Have the class compare the usefulness of ASL and BSL to the signals of referees and futures market employees. Have the class discuss what it would be like to rely solely on signs: What limitations would they experience? What freedoms would they enjoy? (For example, a person has to be able to see the person signing; but people signing can "talk" in places where silence is required.) Ask them to read this article outlining manualist and oralist arguments.
Suggested Student Assessment:
Have students discuss the two sides of the oralist versus manualist argument in small groups or as a class.
Extending the Lesson:
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