Teaching Chimpanzees to Talk Two resourceful psychologists in University of Nevada have made splendid progress in vocabulary development in Chimpanzees. Following a number of abortive attempts to teach French, German, or English, they persevered until they hit upon the American sign language system which is often used by deaf persons. They have had to modify the language somewhat in order to accommodate the animal's spontaneous gestures. With a mixture of innate movements and learned ones, some laboratory chimps have an extensive vocabulary. under the wire--Hank hesitated about his term paper for two months and finally submitted it just under the wire. (just in time)