Debbie,
There are a number of "correct" variations of "pronoun
placement" (word order) in American Sign Language (Humphries &
Padden, 1992).For example you
could say: "I STUDENT I" or, "I STUDENT" or even, "STUDENT I."
Note: The concept of "I" in these sentences is done by pointing
an index finger at your chest and/or touching the tip of the
index finger to your chest.
You could sign:
"I FROM U-T-A-H I."
"I FROM U-T-A-H."
"FROM U-T-A-H I."
All of the above statements are
"ASL."
I notice that some "ASL" teachers
tend to become fanatical about encouraging their students to get
as far away from English word order as possible and thus focus
on the version "FROM U-T-A-H I."
It has been my experience during my
various travels across the U.S. that the versions "I STUDENT"
and "I FROM U-T-A-H" work great and are less confusing to the
majority of people.
The version "FROM UTAH I" tends to be
used only after the subject of the conversation has been
introduced. For example, suppose two people are talking about a
man named Bob. If one of them says he "thought Bob was from
California" and I happen to know he is really from Utah, I would
sign "FROM UTAH HE" while nodding.
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References:
Humphries, T., & Padden, C. (1992). Learning American sign
language. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall.