Receptive Signing and Conversation Skills
What this domain tests
Comprehension in live or recorded signing: following the main idea, catching fingerspelled names, recognising question types, and managing breakdowns. The exam may include a signed prompt, a dialogue, or a repair task.
Core rules and concepts
- Receptive skill is active. Watch the signer's face, hands, and body; use context to predict.
- Keep eye contact. Looking away to think breaks the turn and loses information.
- Use backchannels (nod, raised brows, small YES sign) to show you are following.
- Repair explicitly: SORRY, SLOW, PLEASE; AGAIN; FINGERSPELL, PLEASE; or repeat what you understood.
- Do not fake comprehension by nodding. A wrong nod leads to a bigger breakdown.
Worked example
A signer fingerspells a name quickly and you miss it. Reasoning: do not guess and nod. Hold up a hand politely, sign SORRY, then SLOW PLEASE, and point to the signer. If the name is still unclear, ask FINGERSPELL AGAIN PLEASE and repeat the letters you caught, for example 'K-A-?' This shows partial comprehension and narrows the repair. Then confirm by fingerspelling it back.
Traps that cost marks
- Nodding without understanding.
- Asking 'again' without saying what was missed.
- Watching only the hands and ignoring non-manual features.
- Breaking eye contact to write notes.
- Panicking at one unknown sign and missing the rest.