The signs taught in Ready! Set! Sign!! (RSS) are all ASL-based and (1) are totally accurate for use in communicating through American Sign Language (which has its own word-order syntax) and (2) are totally accurate for use in communicating through Pidgin Signed English (which follows English word order). The grammar concepts taught focus on core skills necessary for communicating in both ASL and Signed English; although, many additional grammar concepts and sign idioms are needed for further fluency in ASL beyond the intermediate level. RSS is meant for the absolute beginning signers and will bring them up through the Intermediate level of signing. Those who know some signing can jump in somewhere along the learning continuum.

Learners can use the materials in ways that match their learning styles and preferences We suggest to learners (and their teachers) that they may:

• Progress through the lessons in our suggested order, 1 though 24.

• Study only those particular lessons of interest to them, such as fingerspelling, numbers or grammar concepts.

• Learn vocabulary that they want, when they want it, using the "Sign Search" glossary of signs.

• Refresh their previous Sign Language knowledge or add to it by using the "Sign Search" glossary of signs.

• Test their current Sign Language knowledge by reading over 1,750 signed practice sentences, phrases, words and numbers.

• View one or more of twenty-three "Cultural Moment" segments providing valuable information about deaf people and Deaf Culture such as "The Americans With Disabilities Act," "How the Ear Works," "Cochlear Implants," "Adaptive and Assistive Devices," "Benefits of the Information Age," and "Communicating with Non-Signers."

In our User's Guide, available in the print manual inside the packaging and as on-screen help, under "How to Use Ready! Set! Sign!!" is the bold sentence: "So, it will ultimately be up to you (or you and your teacher) to decide how best to use the RSS product." This should make it clear to teachers of Sign Language that Ready! Set! Sign!! is a flexible instructional material which they can use as a part of a multitude of instructional strategies.

It is also important to talk a little about the rationale for the organization of the signs into the various vocabulary lessons. The organization of the signs in the lessons and the related visual aids are based on a body of research that indicated that signs were learned quicker and remembered longer if learners had an iconic element that they could connect with each sign. The literature indicated that learners did better if they could see a relationship between the sign and its meaning such as a part-whole relationship (the whiskers of a "cat"), a functional/use relationship (open a "drawer"), a representational (classifier) relationship (this is a person from head to toe and he "appears"), or an association (between "hospital" and the red cross armband). Our vocabulary lessons are organized to facilitate this iconic learning strategy to the greatest extent possible.

However, we also indicate in both the first lesson and in the manual (p.15) that "After you view a visual aid we provide, you might decide it doesn't fully help you to remember the sign. In this case, you may wish to 'visualize' your own visual aid and substitute it for the one we offer." This is consistent with the literature that indicates that the iconic element/visual aid needs to be meaningful to the learner, whatever it is. It should also be noted that the iconic element that we provide learners is not portrayed as the origins of the sign. That aspect is left up to the learners and teachers who will undoubtedly see the transparency of the visual aid/ sign relationship for "cat." However, they would not see the visual aid for "never," signing a part of the relatively recent international sign for don't, a circle with a diagonal line through it, as transparent or related to sign origin. They would just use the visual aid as a learning/ memory tool. In either case, but more likely for "never," if the learners were able to substitute a visual aid that was more meaningful to them, they should do it.