Check to confirm that your students have a solid foundation in sign language before beginning interpreter training. Teaching sign language interpretation is not the same as teaching advanced sign language. Students need advanced signing skills to begin learning to interpret. Professional sign language interpreters, like interpreters of spoken languages, must be absolutely fluent in both languages used.
Make sure your students have a broad general education and are well read across a range of topics. Background knowledge in a range of fields will be useful to students since they will likely need to interpret signed communication in a range of professional and social settings over the course of their careers.
Introduce your students to the fundamental principles and techniques of sign language interpreting. Ensure they understand the structural and lexical differences between the signed and spoken languages with which they are working. Give them practice doing consecutive interpretation (interpreting sentences or brief passages immediately after they are said). Have your students watch and assess each others' work.
Familiarize your students with simultaneous interpretation (providing interpretation while speech is in progress). This requires a higher level of interpreting skill than consecutive interpretation. Make sure your students understand their job is not just to translate words and sentences accurately, but to convey the larger communicative act the speaker or signer intends (for instance, a question, request or command).
Give your students ample opportunity to practice their sign language and sign interpreting skills outside the classroom. Provide language labs for independent practice. Encourage students to participate in or volunteer for activities involving the deaf community. Offer internships to introduce them to interpreting in professional settings.
Discuss the ethical requirements of sign language interpreting with your students. Make sure they understand their responsibility to interpret accurately and without addition or omission, and that they know to avoid injecting personal views into their interpretations.
Ensure that your students' training and knowledge is sufficiently rigorous to qualify them for professional certification. In the United States, the National Association of the Deaf and the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (NAD/RID) jointly offer certification exams in general and specialized sign language interpreting. NAD/RID certification is nationally recognized. Many states also have their own licensing requirements for sign language interpreters.