Every ASL teacher sees the same mistakes in every first-semester class. None of them mean you are bad at this. They mean you are a speaker of English learning a language that works differently, and your English habits are showing. Here are the ten most common, why they happen, and the one habit that fixes each.
1. Signing in English word order
What it looks like: "I am going to the store tomorrow" signed as I GO STORE TOMORROW, one sign per English word.
Why: You think in English, and the signs come out in English order.
The fix: Time first, topic first, question word last. TOMORROW STORE I GO. Pick one rule a week from ASL grammar vs English and use it until it is automatic.
2. A blank face
What it looks like: Perfect handshapes, no eyebrows, no head movement. Questions look like statements; negatives look like positives.
Why: Adults have trained themselves to keep a neutral face in public.
The fix: Mirror work, exaggerated, for a week. Eyebrows down on What and Where, up on yes-or-no questions, head shake on No. See facial expressions.
3. Signing too low or too wide
What it looks like: Hands down near the waist, or signs swinging out to the sides.
Why: It feels less exposed to sign small and low.
The fix: Your signing space is a box from your waist to just above your head and about shoulder-width. Most signs live between the chest and the chin. Keep them there so they are easy to see.
4. Fingerspelling everything
What it looks like: Every word you do not know gets spelled out.
Why: It feels like the safe fallback.
The fix: Learn the sign instead. Ask How Do You Sign That?. Fingerspelling is for names, places, and brands, not for vocabulary you have not learned. See fingerspelling tips.
5. Looking at your own hands
What it looks like: Your eyes drop to check your handshape while you sign.
Why: You are not confident the shape is right.
The fix: Eye contact is grammar in ASL. Keep your eyes on the person. Practice signs in the mirror until you trust your hands, then stop watching them.
6. Mouthing full English sentences
What it looks like: Lips saying "I am going to the store" while hands sign something shorter.
Why: It feels like it helps the listener.
The fix: It does not. ASL has its own mouth movements (mouth morphemes) and English mouthing over them is noise. Mouth the gloss or relax your lips. The only exception is fingerspelling, where you mouth the whole word once.
7. Nodding along when you are lost
What it looks like: Someone signs, you do not understand, you nod and smile.
Why: You do not want to interrupt or seem slow.
The fix: Sign Again and Sign Slow are polite and expected. Nodding through confusion is the thing that actually annoys people, because it wastes their time.
8. Bouncing while you fingerspell
What it looks like: The whole hand hops with each letter.
Why: Each letter feels like a separate action.
The fix: Park the wrist. Only the fingers move. Spell your name fifty times with your elbow against your side.
9. Adding VERY to everything
What it looks like: VERY HAPPY, VERY BIG, VERY TIRED.
Why: That is how English does intensity.
The fix: ASL changes the sign itself. A bigger, slower Happy with a bigger smile is "very happy." Puffed cheeks make Big huge. Save the VERY sign for when it is really needed.
10. Quitting at the plateau
What it looks like: Two months in, you know 200 signs, you try a real conversation, it goes badly, and you stop.
Why: Receptive skill lags productive skill, and nobody warned you.
The fix: Expect it. Spend a month watching more than signing: Deaf creators, interpreted content, the practice drills on our guides. Reading comes after producing, and it comes. See how long it takes.
The pattern
Nine of these ten are the same mistake wearing different clothes: treating ASL as English on the hands. The fix for all of them is the same too: watch real signers, copy what they do with their whole body, and let go of the English. The first 50 signs is a good place to start doing that on purpose.
