British Sign Language for Dummies | Paperback

Having started to learn BSL this year, I've discovered that there are a surprising number of books and resources for signing in which the diagrams for signs are almost impossible to interpret correctly. This book is better than many I've come across, giving diagrams that are generally straightforward to follow. The diagrams aren't big, and have quite fine lines to them, but they're detailed enough that you can see which way round your hand is supposed to be, which finger(s) are being used, and usually what movement (if any) accompanies a particular sign. Just occasionally it might be nice to have a brief description accompanying the diagram to disambiguate matters, but if this book is being used alongside a signing course the diagram is ideal as a refresher.

The book is packed with information, presented in a well-structured manner that's designed to get you using what you're seeing from the word 'go'. Sections are accompanied by exercises to help you practise what you've just read, and the accompanying software CD (which includes a number of sign language dialogue clips) is a handy resource, usable on Windows, OS X and Linux-based machines, and intended to be used in conjunction with the text from the outset.

In addition to teaching signs themselves, the book looks at the importance of other aspects of body language (such as facial expression), differences between British English (whose underlying grammar is 'Subject-Verb-Object') and British Sign Language (where the most important information in the sentence typically comes first), and aspects of Deaf culture, history and community.