Glossing is a practice in American Sign Language (ASL) that involves writing a morpheme-by-morpheme translation using English words. Glosses indicate the individual parts of the native word, and they are used to help researchers and students make notes in their own language regarding the second language. For example, an English-speaking researcher would use gloss to transcribe the “clicks” of the tongue that occur in the Bantu languages of South Africa.
There are various ways to sign in ASL, but the basics of learning how to gloss include using the Time, Topic, and Comment structure. Glosses do not provide translations but describe what was signed. Students can study glossing terms like glossing conventions, (time)-topic-comment sentence structure, and more using tools like Quizlet.
The sign for homework is a compound sign made from a combination of the signs “HOME” and “WORK”. The goal of ASL Gloss is to provide labels to assist ASL learning, not to translate ASL into English. Glossing is a great way for students to break down what they are signing and makes them think it through. Writing gloss requires two lines for each sentence, with the top line for facial expressions or non-manual signals, and the bottom line for the sentence structure.
A worksheet for practicing some of the basics of glossing includes reminders and examples. Glossing is a valuable tool for researchers and students to learn and improve their understanding of the second language.
📹 Introduction to ASL Gloss | ASL – American Sign Language
There is an easier way to “write” ASL. That is called ASL Gloss. Gloss means that we borrow from the English language. To show …
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