Introduction

The languages of West Africa are too numerous and diverse for detailed regional listing. Within each state many different mother tongues are spoken, often unrelated one to another and mutually quite unintelligible. Even those which have achieved some status as a lingua franca within a given area tend to have more than one dialect, and any written literature will be of recent origin. Many languages are spoken only within very small areas, and many have never been written down at all.

From an English language teaching point of view, it is more useful to classify the states of West Africa according to their official second language (English or French). The second language is the language of government and, to a large extent, of education, subject to local policy. It is also the medium of a growing African literature, since French, and particularly English, command greater prestige and a far wider market than any of the mother tongues. For these reasons, the choice of English or French as an official second language tends to have a stronger influence on English teaching materials and methods than the mother tongue of pupils or teacher.

A large proportion of the population are of limited education, and understand only a few words of English, or none at all. Those who have had an elementary education may use English only occasionally, and with severely limited competence.