Videos on the Read with ASL YouTube channel help with reading and with learning American Sign Language!
Deaf ASL presenters describe real-life scenes
Voice-overs give listening or reading practice (Scroll to the end of the description for the “Transcript” button)
Pictures and video clips show concepts and context for on-screen sentences
Short sentences on each video clip help with reading comprehension. (These sentences are not ASL translations.)
Watching Deaf people describe fun scenes on each video helps readers with both ASL learning and reading comprehension
Read with ASL YouTube videos strengthen reading comprehension
expanding vocabulary
making multiple-meanings of words clear
helping readers understand both literal and figurative language
Watching the Read with ASL YouTube videos helps American Sign Language learners pick up ASL features such as classifiers, locatives, pluralization, distributional aspect, and depictive (descriptive) signing. The American Sign Language presentations in Read with ASL YouTube videos are descriptive. The Deaf ASL presenters describe scenes: places, people, animals, actions, and events. Watching descriptive ASL helps viewers subconsciously acquire, absorb, or “pick up” ASL features such as the use of classifier handshapes to set up referents in space to show what, where and how, and the use of body and gaze shifting to show different individuals or perspectives. Watching ASL descriptions of scenes with related on-screen sentences also encourages reading comprehension.