SEE and ASL

You may have seen someone signing before in Signed Exact English (SEE) and thought that it was just the same as American Sign Language, but they are very different. American Sign Language has it’s own established grammatical rules, signs, and sentence structure. Signed Exact English, however, is just signed English. SEE borrows many signs from ASL, but SEE is signed in English word order with English grammar. What this means is that ASL is its own independent language, while SEE is simply a signed form of English. SEE can be beneficial when trying to learn and understand English grammar, but is not as widely used as ASL as a way for the Deaf to communicate. It was established mostly as a way for the Deaf to learn English in an educational setting where English is the primary language. Signed Exact English and American Sign Language can look similar, but they are two very different modes of communication.