The author outlines the socio-cultural and language problems of three main types of developing nations. The first type, the "new developing nations," (sub-Saharan and East Africa) have little to draw upon in terms of a useable socio-cultural or political past. The language problems reflect emphasis on political integration, for which purposes Western languages are adopted. Successful language policy in these new nations leads to bilingualism and monolingualism. The second type, the "old developing nations," (North Africa, the Near East, and South-East Asia) have the problem of creating the new out of the old and the hallowed. Their classical standard languages usually differ substantially from the current vernaculars of the masses. The tendency is to import a Western language in toto for modernization. A suggested compromise is to use Western loan words or translation loans for lexical expansion. (This is resisted by classicists.) The "intermediate" or third type, (India and Pakistan) have strong links with great traditions and have all of the difficulties of the first two types. Like the "new" nations, they may require the more permanent utilization of a Western language for the purposes of political and economic modernization and national integration. Like the "old" nations, they may require the development and modernization of one or more indigenous traditional languages for local and regional socio-cultural modernization and integration. (AMM)