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English and British Sign Language (BSL) are not the same, they are separate languages with different grammatical structure etc.

British Sign Language (BSL) is a visual/spatial language using hands, arms, body and facial expressions and there has been much linguistic research into British Sign Language (BSL) and other sign languages around the world. In 2003, the UK Government gave official recognition to British Sign Language (BSL) as a separate language.

It is difficult to get an accurate figure for the number of deaf people who use British Sign Language. According to the British Deaf Association, there are currently around 250,000 deaf people who use BSL as their first or preferred language (this number includes people who are born deaf as well as those who become deaf later in their lives from childhood onwards)

Each country has its own Sign Language in the same way that each country has their own spoken language. As with spoken languages, there are regional 'accents' in Sign Language too.

Within the UK, there is also another form of communication called "Sign Supported English". Unlike BSL, Sign Supported English (SSE) follows the same word order as English and is usually used by deaf people who lost their hearing later in their lives. These two styles of sign language are not mutually compatible, for example a person who uses SSE would not be able to access information in BSL unless they had previously learned this.