After watching a documentary on ape intelligence, a student remarks that apes may be smart, but they lack the ability to use language. what would most likely be the professor's response?

While apes cannot produce spoken the language, various apes have been successfully taught to use symbolic forms of communication,

These symbolic forms of communication usually used by the Apes to coordinate their group members when they're doing their day to day activities, such as hunting for food, choosing the leader of the pack, choosing mates, etc.