"Learning is doing. It is an active process in which you must be involved. You do not learn effectively by sitting on the sidelines; you must be involved and participating in what you are trying to learn."

Your high school learning experience took place in a "teaching environment." How much you learned depended largely on the knowledge and skills of your teacher. Now you are in college – in a "learning environment." The responsibility for what you learn is yours, NOT the instructor’s. You are expected to be an independent learner.

You know you need to study. You know it is important. But, maybe it has been a while since they were in classes in high school or college. And very few people have studied a visual language before. So, while you are committed to doing whatever it takes to be successful in learning sign language and interpreting, you wish you had a better idea of exactly what it does take.

This booklet was developed to help you succeed and achieve your goals of language fluency and interpreting knowledge and skill.

We start with a basic overview of general tips for effective studying. The second section focuses on specific activities you can do when studying American Sign Language. The last section describes activities to help you practice and develop interpreting skills.

We hope these hints and suggestions will help you on your learning path.