Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Sign Language: A Part of Human Language: GAC002 Assessment Event 1: Academic Research Essay
Sign Language: A Part of Human Language: GAC002 Assessment Event 1: Academic Research Essay
Language
Student ID#: 20
Question: Deaf people are communicating with sign language. What is “Sign Language”?
Explain it by using facts, examples, anecdotes or other evidence to clarify this concept.
Sign language is a language that uses sign through hand gesture or other gestures, including facial
expressions and body postures that commonly used by deaf people. In facts this language is founded in
the 16th century and constantly developing until now, but sign language is not a universal language so it is
different in every country. However not all people know about sign language so that many people cannot
First, the originate of sign language. This language is founded in the 16th century by Italian doctor named
Geranimo Cardano who choose to teach the deaf student by writing a several symbolic combinations and
associating them with the object they represent. Then in 1755, there was a French priest named Abbe
Charles Michel de L’Epée, invented a school for deaf people in Paris and he develop a form of
communication for them thru a system of gestures, hand signs, and finger spelling for easy
communication. Then after he studying existing signs and gestures used by deaf people, he improves his
system and finally become the sign language of the spoken language in Paris at that time. The L’Epée
system has also succeeded in pioneering modern French sign language. In 1816, Dr. Thomas Hopkins
adopted this system and the sign language continued to develop. (Sumangal)
30/4/2021 page 1
Next, the facts about there are not universal sign language in this world. Every language in this world,
well its spoken or signed, is special and continually developing. Spoken language in every country are
different, same well as the signed language, it must be different in each country. The other reason is
language and culture are related so if there is a universal sign language, the language must be change
quickly in every country adjusting the existing culture in their country. Therefore, now we can find about
300 different sign languages worldwide which the most common languages are ASL (American Sign
Language), BSL (British Sign Language), and AUSLAN (Australian Sign Language). (Tscherneshoff
2018)
Finally, sign language is also an important language in this world. Even though that only 5% of the world
population are deaf, they also human beings who need to communicate with everyone to share what they
want, what is in their opinion, and they also have the same rights as those of us who are not deaf, they
should not be ignored. Therefore, this language is important for us to learn it to communicate with those
who have disabilities. Then if we learn sign language, we can show the deaf community that we care
about them and show them that they are not forgotten. (Berry 2016)
In conclusion, now we know that sign language is a language that uses sign through hand gesture or other
gestures, including facial expressions and body postures that commonly used by deaf people that founded
in the 16th century in France, but we can find about 300 different sign language around the world because
language and culture are related so sign language can be different in every country. Even though that sign
30/4/2021 page 2
language was created for the deaf people, its still an important language, we have to learn this language to
communicate with the deaf people to know what they want or their opinions and to show them that we
30/4/2021 page 3
Reference list
Berry, H. (2016), The Importance of Sign Language, Bryant Archway [online]. Available at:
https://bryantarchway.com/the-importance-of-sign-language/ [Accessed 18 April 2021]
Deafness and hearing loss (2021), World Health Organization [online]. Available at:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/deafness-and-hearing-loss [Accessed 19 April
2021]
Sign Language Alphabet from Around The World (2021), Ai-Media [online]. Available at:
https://www.ai-media.tv/sign-language-alphabets-from-around-the-world/ [Accessed 19 April
2021]
Sumangal, B. (2020), How did sign language originate, Pitara Kids’ Network [online]. Available at:
https://www.pitara.com/science-for-kids/5ws-and-h/how-did-sign-language-originate/ [Accessed
17 April 2021]
Tcherneshoff, K. (2018), Answering Your Most Common Question About Sign Language, Wikitongues
[online]. Available at:
https://medium.com/wikitongues/answering-your-most-common-questions-about-sign-languages-
d206bb06853c [Accessed 17 April 2021]
Why isn’t there a universal sign language? (2018), Deaf Bible Society [online]. Available at:
https://stories.deafbiblesociety.com/why-isnt-there-a-universal-sign-language/ [Accessed 17 April
2021]
30/4/2021 page 4