Signed or Spoken: Which is the Easier Language to Learn?

Carlson and Buskist (1997) state that communication is probably the most important of all human social behaviours, with the possible exception of sexual behaviour (without which the species would not survive).  Subsequently it becomes impracticable to support that human beings are not built with an innate capacity for languaged interaction.  It may prove beneficial, at this point, to specify an exact meaning of language.  Ellis (1999) emphasises that all definitions of language must include a communicative function; this description is further advanced by Pescador (1986, as cited in Girbau, 2004) who states that language may be defined as a plurality of signs of the same nature, whose primary function is communication among organisms….(short extract)