Notwithstanding the barriers posed by multiplicity of languages, inherited colonial policies, and negative state and citizen attitudes, West African experience supports a policy of using the mother tongue rather than a foreign language as the medium of instruction in schools at all levels. (Author/MJL)

An evaluation of the Six-Year Primary Project showed that Nigerian students who were taught in their mother-tongue (Yoruba) for the first six years of primary school scored higher academically than students who were taught with their mother-tongue for the first three years and then were switched to English. (RM)

The paper draws attention to communication in multilingual states which may be said to exist at three levels: sub-state, state, and inter-state level. Communication at the sub-state level may involve an "in-group" language or a regional one, and hence a multilingual model is required at this level. At the state level, on the other hand,…