Most people who can hear have the misconception that American Sign Language (ASL) and English are the same except for the latter is spoken and the former uses gestures. However, this opinion is far from the truth. The main difference between the two or any other English sign language is ASL is distinct with its own set of rules and grammar.
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Many people found it necessary to develop additional types which are more in relation with the American form. This need resulted in other English sign language forms. Some of the popular ones include Signed Exact English (SEE), Pidgin Signed English (PSE) and Cued Speech.
SEE was founded around 1972. It is a popular tool to give instruction to deaf children and people whose native tongue is English. In SEE, gestures are communicated in exact word order as English. It is not as popular, nevertheless, it is an option available to people who want to know how to learn signing. Additional gestures are used for words ending with “ing” and other such conventions. Another popular English sign language was created out of SEE and ASL and is commonly known as PSE.
PSE is considered as a compromise language created by deaf people. It is used by a deaf person to communicate with a hearing person who has at least a little knowledge about English sign language. There are usually a variety of gestures for the same phrase or sentence in PSE because it is a mixture of SEE and ASL. In addition, PSE uses many similar gestures.
ASL tends to be the number one choice for most deaf communities because of its awareness to and influence from a deaf person. After all, this form did develop in deaf communities. Other kinds of English sign language were created mainly to facilitate easy communication in a more direct way. The later types have become progressively adaptable compared to the previous ones.
Following is an example to illustrate the above point better. Suppose a person wants to have ice cream. In SEE, his sentence frame would be “I want to eat an ice cream now.” However, in American Sign Language his sentence frame would be “Now eat ice cream I want.” ASL aims at expressing a sentence without involving as many words as any other English sign language. Also, as shown in the example, the word order of the sentence might be completely different from any other English sign language. This variation is because of the difference in grammar rules.
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Many people are striving hard to have ASL recognized as an academic subject. This subject would be taught as an additional option in schools and universities because of its distinction from all other languages. Several universities are considering English sign language courses. Furthermore, some universities currently offer ASL as an optional foreign language to exchange students from other countries.