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Reducing parameter errors:
What are parameter errors in ASL and how can you reduce them?
"Reduce parameter errors" is a fancy way of saying "clean up your signing."
In other words, do your signs using the handshapes, movements, locations, and orientations that are used by the majority of skilled signers and/or that are similar to the citation (dictionary) version of signs.
Let me give you an example of a signing error that is not a parameter error. Suppose someone signs APPLE in an excellent way but they meant to sign or should have signed BANANA. That isn't a parameter error. That instead is a lexical selection error or a conceptual error. It is possible for a signer to choose the wrong sign entirely, even though they are producing it correctly. This isn’t an issue with handshape, movement, location, palm orientation, or non-manual signals (the parameters), but rather with selecting the appropriate lexical item, or sign, to convey the intended meaning.
Lexical selection errors are similar to what might happen in spoken language when someone says "apple" but meant to say "banana." The error lies in the choice of the sign rather than in the production of the sign itself. In ASL, these types of errors might arise from a temporary lapse in recall, confusion between similar concepts, or even a "slip of the hand" where a related sign is selected instead of the target sign.
Whether a parameter error has occurred is often a matter of subjective opinion.
Sometimes people "correct" a parameter error done by someone else -- when it really isn't an error but rather the signing was fine but the person doing the correcting lacks of awareness of ASL at the parameter level or is disregarding the differences between citation (dictionary) versions versus real-life articulation (or in other words the way signs morph and change when signed in everyday communication).
An interpreter friend of mine has more than once been (supposedly) "corrected" by Deaf people to do the sign "SORRY" with an "S" handshape. Yet if you were to study the history of the sign for "SORRY" and common real-life usage of that sign (easily observed in videos of skilled signers) the citation (dictionary) handshape is an "A" (or at least it should be an "A" or a modified "A" if we are seeking a historically and currently accurate representation of fluent Deaf signing).
Let me say that again: She has been "corrected" twice for a parameter error that was not an error.
Another error that is not an error that I see (other) Deaf sometimes correcting is that of coarticulated fingerspelling shapes such as a three-fingered "E" spelled after an "M" or a two-fingered "E" spelled after an "N." Such "parameters" are actually accurate but sometimes "corrected" by overzealous non-experts who think they are experts but lack an awareness of their own language at the parameter level.
However, it is a fact that many ASL as a second language learners make a significant number of handshape, location, orientation, and movement (as well as non-manual) errors.
Now I'm going to provide a partial answer your question Mohammed because I know you will have read this far because you are one of those language learners who put in deep effort.
An approach to reducing parameter errors is to invest time with skilled signers and then empower them to correct you at a granular level. Inform them that you appreciate and very much want those around you to fix your signing at or very near the moment you muck up. Assure them that you won't think it is rude and if they do it in front of other people point out to the other people that you WANT and have asked for such feedback.
I have a friend who due to a bacterial infection basically became a drooling ... well, let's just say she suffered from a catastrophic cognitive impairment, literally drooled, spoke nonsense, and was lucky to survive. She lost much of her brain function due to bacterially induced deterioration of the myelin sheathing that insulates nerve cells and speeds up the transmission of electrical impulses.
She was (and still is) a fierce warrior and demanded her life and her communication ability back and empowered me (and everyone else) to work with her. We developed an understanding that when she signed an error I would angle my body just enough so her perspective of my signing would be similar to her perspective of her own signing and I would show a more common version of the sign.
Often, due to her reduced functioning she couldn't fix the error by just seeing the target version modeled. At that point I would gently but quickly grab her hands, position them, and move them the right way. Remember, this person had empowered me to fix her signing as directly and as efficiently as possible.
We wasted ZERO time in formalities or ego protecting and simply held long conversations in close proximity during which it was common for me to fix 30 to 50 or more errors per conversation (that is not an exaggeration).
Again, and again, and again.
Long story short -- her signing improved to a point that many would consider miraculous.
On the base of her commitment and incredible effort the process worked because of permission and adjustments to expectation levels allowing us to bypass social norms and become hyper-effective at the parameter error reduction.
Feedback enabled by trust.
Ways to reduce parameter errors:
1. Pay attention to each parameter when learning a new sign. Specifically become aware of the handshape, location, orientation and movement of each new sign (as well as any accompanying facial expressions).
2. Watch yourself signing in a mirror and look for any differences between what your hands are doing and what you've seen signed by skilled signers.
3. Video record yourself signing and then play it back later after you've had a chance to forget what you signed and see if you can understand your own signing. If not, why? Do your signs seem different? What is different? Ask a friend to review your video and point out any signs that seem off or different.
4. Do real time expressive evaluations in which a collaborator presents you with a list of vocabulary words and asks you to sign them. The collaborator stops you immediately and informs you of any signs that seem to have an error and identifies what that error might be. Make a list of such errors and review them with other signers to see if the issue is really an error or just differences in how individual signers produce signs.
Notes:
Also see:
Parameters - ASL
and
Parameters of ASL
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