Hi Tracy,
I'm going to tell you what I've done. I'm hearing, but recently started feeling very strongly about wanting to become proficient in ASL. Obviously a real immersion situation would be optimal, but this can be hard to find, or very expensive. What I've found is that with today's technology, it's possible to create a very effective substitute. I do not mean a complete substitute: I would not suggest what I'm about to say to someone who is not also taking classes. I think we have to have feedback, either from a qualified instructor, or some contact with the Deaf community, at least someone fluent to catch our mistakes. But you've said you're taking classes, so I think it's ok for me to tell you what has worked for me.
(1) of course, take classes, which you're doing. Awesome.
(2) attend any deaf events you can, if you can find them.
(3) Go to your local library, also research in their database for resources they can borrow from other libraries. You want DVDs on asl. Vocabulary, expressions, idioms, whatever they have. You want books on asl grammar. You want books on the Deaf experience and Deaf culture. Books on the Linguistics of ASL. Anything ASL- or Deaf- related. Read and study. You can do searches on "deaf" and "asl" but sometimes you'll miss things. One trick is to go to
Gallaudet University Press Spring 2012 Catalog and find things that look interesting, then go search your library database by title. Of course if you can afford to, it's nice to support the community and actually buy some of the books too.
(4) A few things worth buying:
(a) The Signing Naturally Series (
http://www.dawnsign.com/products.php?category_id=62 - look for student sets, levels 1, 2, and 3). This is a workbook/DVD combination used in good college courses. They are very good, but expensive. If you try to get used copies (I think you can save alot on the first course anyway), make sure the DVD is included. These courses don't correspond with similarly named night courses. You could, for example, take ASL 1, 2, and 3 in a continuing education program and still benefit from Signing Naturally Level 2.
(b) DVDs from aslfilms.com - Entirely in ASL. English subtitles available.
(c) The Gallaudet Dictionary of American Sign Language - it comes with a DVD.
(5) Practice, *all* the time. If you have an idea in your head (I'm assuming this happens alot!) ask yourself, "How would I sign this?" Do you know the vocabulary? Do you know how to structure the sentence grammatically? If not, write in a notebook what questions you would need to ask to find out what you need. If you think you can do it, try it in front of a mirror. Was it awkward? Do it again, and again, until it feels more natural.
(6) Practice your fingerspelling. If a word pops into your head, fingerspell it. If you're signing (even to yourself) and you don't know a sign, fingerspell it. As your signing gets better, you'll need to do this less and less, but then your fingerspelling skills may develop more slowly, so make sure you're getting fingerspelling practice some other way. Like when you think of an odd word in the middle of doing something else. If a word is just weird, somehow hard to spell smoothly, write it in a special page in your notebook. Keep a list of weird words and practice them. That's going to help you with transitions between letters that are extra-challenging (and other odd fingerspelling hangups) and will improve your overall skill before you know it. My list had words like "confirmation" and "vocabulary" on it.
(7) Practice your receptive skills. For fingerspelling, try
Fingerspelling Quiz for American Sign Language (ASL) For numbers, try
American Sign Language ASL, (neither of these exactly mimic real receptive work, because they're series of pictures of handshapes, so you don't get to see the hands moving between letters/numbers. But they help get your eyes seeing (and your brain processing) faster.
(8) Practice your receptive skills some more. Try watching vlogs. (make sure they're vlogs by people who really know asl. There are alot of student works out there, some of which are iffy. I have some of my favorites listed at the bottom of this page-
American Sign Language practice sessions in Pittsburgh ) If you don't understand most of the signs, watch anyway. Your eyes and your brain are learning to see faster. As that happens and as your vocabulary fills out, you'll get there. If you understand nothing, watch for fingerspelled words and play them over and over, try to get them. You know you at least know the alphabet for sure, so they may be crazy-fast, but they're a possibility. As you figure some of them out, you'll start to get a little context for the surrounding words. Try watching some films in asl. And work out of the signing naturally series.)
(9) Advertise for people to practice with. (craigslist? local bulletin boards?) Look for people a little ahead of your level, they're amazing to practice with as far as improving yourself. But if you find people at your level, that's good too. Practice with them. And if you find people behind you, help them out. If you find people who are amazing and beyond you, ask them for some of their time. Offer to pay them if you can.
(10) I hesitated to do this, but I think if you have enough other input and keep your head in the right place it's ok. Once in a while I watch the *entire* Gallaudet dictionary DVD. (not in one sitting. I work my way through.) I watch the words I don't know. I practice the ones I kind of know. For the really familar ones, I check for synonyms. This is a really bad idea if you don't have other input, like classes and Deaf friends. It would be easy to think you're learning when you're getting the wrong idea about how to use some of the vocabulary. But if you keep that in mind (telling yourself that you basically need to see the stuff in real life before being sure you know how to use it, etc) it can really help your vocabulary. Mainly I think the benefit is it cements words you've seen but either were unsure of or forgot.
(11) If what I've described is massively more than what you're doing right now, go into it gradually. I know some really enthusiastic asl students and interpreters who've hurt their hands or wound up with carpal tunnel. If your hands are feeling tired or sore, you can practice *in your head*. It's amazing how much it helps to imagine (for example) fingerspelling a word. I find that I can easily fingerspell words in my head if (and only if) I can easily fingerspell them on my hands.
(12) What else? Get skype and a decent webcam if you don't have them and go to
http://www.alldeaf.com/sign-language-oralism/75678-students-looking-asl-buddies.html Meet people and practice with them online. Is there a deaf school or a deaf center in your area? If so, offer to volunteer there. Is there a church with Deaf people in the congregation? Maybe someone interpreting? Attend those services. I've noticed here that neighboroods with a Deaf school in them (or even neighborhoods that *used* to have a Deaf school in them) have a denser Deaf population. People move there when they find their kids need the school. Those kids grow up and have families. You might find Deaf people, CODA's, or other people who know some ASL (friends, family members - this stuff spreads. People want to be able to communicate with each other). Put on a t-shirt that says "I love ASL" and go get a beer at the local bar. You never know.
(13) When you're signing, try not allowing yourself to speak, or even mouth the words. That'll free you from the shackles of English and give you a chance to try to think in ASL, or at least focus on the (very different) grammar. About grammar, don't forget Kristina B's post with Berry's tips:
http://www.alldeaf.com/sign-languag...ems-if-not-most-using-five-simple-tricks.html
I have basically been drilling myself like a crazy person (There are some who would tell me I don't need to use the word "like"
) for months, lying in bed practicing from a dvd until I pass out, waking up and starting where I left off. Driving to events, just not letting up at all. Thinking about how it is for babies, how much immersion they get, trying to give myself at least that number of hours of exposure per day to the language. Both receptive and exrpessive, even if alot of the expressive is talking to myself or talking to a person I'm imagining to be there. And I think it's working. Deaf people tell me my communication skills are good. (No native signer is going to mistake me for a native signer, but many people have stood there with their jaws hanging open when I tell them when I started learning.) I recently went to an interview, and was asked if I sign. We talked about the classes I took, and when it became clear that I'd been at it for less than a year, the interviewer had a look that suggested she thought I might have wasted her time by coming in, that there was no way I'd be good enough. I asked for an assessment, so she brought someone in and we signed for a few minutes. He told her I was fine, and she was blown away by the conversation she witnessed. And I'm good to go. So my over-the-top approach seems to be working for me. If you want to try it, I hope it works for you
to AllDeaf forum. I hope you enjoy reading and posting all the threads here. See you around here. 
