The Department of English and Literary Studies in LAUTECH has its historical trace to the English Unit in the former Department of General Studies, which served to provide academic services to the science-based disciplines in the University in the humanities disciplines of English, History, Philosophy and Sociology since inception of the university. However, in line with the provision of the Technical Reports establishing the University in April 1990, the disciplines in the Department of General Studies were unbundled to start the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences towards producing graduates in the arts and social sciences-based disciplines, especially to complement scientific knowledge acquisition of the students of the University for an all-inclusive, labourmarket, suitability.

So, on February 7, 2022, the National Universities Commission (NUC) visited the Department of English and Literary Studies, being one of the unbundled disciplines in the newly established Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, for resource verification/accreditation of the programmes in the Department: English Language and Literature in English. And the programmes in the Department were officially approved by the NUC on March 14, 2022. The NUC’s approval then licenses the newly established department to train arts-based students to receive academic and entrepreneurial skills leading to the award of the degree of B.A. in English in either English Language or Literature in English emphasis respectively.

English as a second language in Nigeria serves multifarious roles in human capacity development. It is an official language, a Lingua Franca and the language of instruction in the educational system. Likewise, literature in English serves as a veritable instrument through which social realities are represented in creative works. In view of these, the training of students of English and Literary Studies in Nigerian Universities is guided by the philosophy of enhancing their achievement of improved knowledge of English and the acquisition of adequate oral and written skills as well as skills for critical interpretation of literary texts of different genres for the understanding of refracted societal realities in different domains of life (domestic, economic, social, religious, political, cultural, etc.).

The above philosophy thus has implications for equipping graduates of the discipline (both of English Language and Literature in English emphasis) with the requisite skills for academic and professional competence-cum proficiency that will be aided by learning-spurred skills for appropriate pronunciation, speech articulateness, grammaticality and acceptability in English usage, stylistic appropriateness in word and sentence choices, genre differentiation in English usage for academic, administrative and other professional job demands, and literary as well as creative writing, and so on. Ultimately, the central underpinning philosophy is the English Language-sensitive value-added impacts on individual and national development