The Fingerspelling Code

Many learners assume that fluent signers spell the ASL manual alphabet the same way they do, only faster. This book argues that the gap is more basic. Native users change how they form and move through the letters in ways that are rarely taught, so practicing the standard method at a quicker pace will not close it.

The author starts from the idea that learners are not the problem. Their eyes and minds work fine. The difficulty is that the fingerspelling they watch looks so different from what they were shown that they cannot work out what they are seeing.

Dr. Van Manen investigated this mismatch and identified patterns in the way native signers produce the alphabet without being aware of them, presenting them as a code. The field has long credited native fluency to speed alone, but he shows that the speed depends on specific, identifiable changes, which he documents in the book.