Learning Sign-to-Voice Interpreting: MIND THE GAP!

Here's three steps to becoming an awesome sign-to-voice interpreter:

1. Always look at the deaf person
2. Understand everything he or she signs
3. Say it in perfect English.

That's it. Now go out and conquer the world.

But wait, there must be more to it than that!

In the typical sign to voice class. all too often the student is asked to do step 3, before he or she can even follow step #1.

And step one in more sophisticated terms is to have the visual acuity/tracking skills to be able to take in all of the information that is on the surface and embedded in a signed narrative. In short, the average beginning student cannot even SEE the signs.

Scene from an actual class

Me (the teacher): Notice how the deaf signer's head goes slightly back and the eye gaze changes, that indicates a relative clause, so you know that's not a new idea, but an expansion on the topic.

Ted (the student): What? Where? The eyes changed? I didn't see it.

Me: Let's look again.

Ted: (puzzled expression)

Me: Again?

Ted: Ohhhh, now I see it.


Before students are asked to voice or even UNDERSTAND the signed message, they have to be trained TO SEE, TO NOTICE, TO PROCESS the visual information.

This is a big gap in how voicing is generally taught. Perhaps it is more than a gap....perhaps it is a sinkhole. A very significant bottomless sinkhole--because believe me, once you miss that aspect of your skill acquisition, I promise you will spend years trying to catch up,

In my opinion, the way most ITP teach voicing is "FIRE, AIM, READY"