Productive Sign Language Use
Domain 2: Productive Sign Language Use
This domain tests your ability to produce clear, coherent signed texts and to interact in NSL: setting up information, maintaining referents, using appropriate non-manual features and repairing misunderstandings. Productive signing is judged on meaning and grammatical fit, not on how closely it copies English.
Core rules
- Plan the visual layout before you sign. Decide where each person, place or object will sit in space and keep it there.
- Introduce a referent once, then point to its locus or use a directional verb rather than repeating a full noun.
- Use role shift deliberately: shift your body or gaze to show who is speaking or acting.
- Match mouth patterns and facial expression to the sign's meaning. A casual smile during a serious report changes the message.
- Use classifiers and depicting signs for shape, movement and handling, especially in explanations and narratives.
- Build in repair: if the viewer looks puzzled, repeat, rephrase, fingerspell or show the referent again.
Worked example
You must explain how to cook porridge. Set an imaginary pot on the left and a spoon on the right. Sign PUT WATER IN POT with a handling classifier, then ADD FLOUR with a small downward movement. Use a stirring classifier with a circular movement and hold it while your face shows 'careful'. Sequence markers FIRST, THEN, AFTER THAT keep the order clear. Reasoning: the pot and spoon loci reduce repetition; the classifier shows the action; the sequence markers carry the procedure; the facial warning adds information that hands alone do not.
Traps
- Signing English word order while omitting NSL spatial grammar.
- Letting a referent drift to a new location without signalling it.
- Fingerspelling common words that have established signs.
- Producing a long text with no viewer check or repair.
- Using a flat face that contradicts the intended register.