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Public and scientific interest in the question of apes' ability to use language first soared some 15 years ago when Washoe, a chimpanzee raised like a human child by R. Allen Gardner and Beatrice Gardner of the University of Nevada, learned to make hand signs for many words and even seemed to be making short sentences.

Interest in the ability of apes to use language was sparked in the early seventies, when a chimpanzee named Washoe was taught sign language by R. Allen Gardner and Beatrice Gardner (Eckholm B7).

Interest in the ability to use language mounted in the early seventies with reports that Washoe, a chimpanzee raised and trained by professors R. Allen Gardner and Beatrice Gardner, had learned words in sign language and may even have created short sentences (Eckholm B7).

According to Ernst Eckholm, noted animal behaviorist, interest in chimpanzees' abilities to use language increased in the early seventies with reports that Washoe, a chimp raised from birth by Beatrice and R. Allen Gardner had "learned to make hand signs for many words and even seemed to be making short sentences" (B7).