CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Over half the world’s population is bilingual and many people are multilingual. They acquire a number of languages because they need them for different purposes in their everyday interactions. The research had it that most of African nations are multilingual. Nigeria is as well a multilingual nation, with 452 different ethnic languages operating daily amongst the lives of the people.One will need one or two of these languages in his daily interactions. Apart from these ethnic languages, there are other varieties of languages that are in operation in the society e.g. lingua franca, which is predominantly English Language, Pidgin, and creoles. All of these are what made up the linguistic varieties in Nigeria. The environment one lives (geographical location) is what determines whichcode to be chosen per time. Also, the classes of people that are involved in the daily activities plays a vital role to some extent, in the choice of the variety of the language to be used. The linguistic code to be used in the formal school environment will be different from the one to be used at home, and the one at home is to some extent, different from the one to be used in the market.