This single language usually has a number of dialects-that is to say, the language, though basically the same, is used in distinctly varying forms in different parts of the country. This explains why a number of developing countries have still not been able to choose their national languages. There are the cases where a country has decided on one language as a national language. Tanzania is an example of this. Then there are the cases of multiple adoption.
Some countries merely choose a few of their many languages as national.
Others go further and add a few others for use at some levels of formal education. Still others go further and add a number of other languages for purposes of literacy teaching. One problem facing all these countries is the dominance of the old colonial languages, usually English, French or Portuguese. Traditionally, all education in the Western sense of the word has been given in these languages, often for well over a hundred years. This has led to the assumption that modern education is only meaningful if it is given in one of these languages.