History of the Department

The English programme started in 1976 with 12 students and a teaching staff of 4 whose breakdown is as follows: 1 Lecturer II and 3 Graduate Assistants.  A Professor and a staff of seven manned the programme in 1977. The pace of excellence was set right from the very beginning when the renowned teacher, Late Professor David Cook took charge of the programme. Since after his tenure, we have had  eleven other staff members who have headed the Department. It is important to note that at inception, the Department was named the Department of Modern European Languages (MEL) comprising of English and French programmes, with Professors Sam Adewoye, Tunde Ajiboye, Olu Obafemi, E. E. Adegbija and Dr. Bukoye Arowole succeeding as Heads of Departments. But when MEL was broken into English and French Departments in 2004, the two programmes started running in their respective academic structures. The English programme has been headed by Professors Charles Bodunde, V. A. Alabi, S. T. Babatunde, P. O. Balogun and Doctors G. A. Ajadi, M. S. Abdullahi-Idiagbon and Abdullahi S. Abubakar. These scholars have made immense contributions to bring the Department to an enviable level and most of them are still available to steer the course of the Department with valuable counsels and peerless intellectual contributions.  At present, there are twenty-five (25) lecturers made up of 5 Professors, 1 Reader, 9 Senior Lecturers, 2 Lecturer I, 1 Lecturer II status and 7 Assistant Lecturers. Many of these lecturers have won outstanding research fellowships, academic distinctions and honours in and outside Nigeria.

Philosophy

The philosophy of the undergraduate English language and Literature-in-English programme is as follows:

In a country such as Nigeria where English is the lingua franca and the language of instruction in the educational system, a high level of proficiency in it is usually expected from the graduates of higher institutions, especially the universities. A higher level of competence and communicative skills is expected even more from graduates of English.

The B. A. (English) programme introduces students to the current trends of English usage in order to assist them to achieve the expected level of proficiency in pronunciation, articulateness in speech, correctness of grammar and usage, elegance of style and diction, and selective appropriateness of English varieties in various real-world situations. Furthermore, the programme equips students with the necessary faculties for making efficient judgments and achieving innovative and higher-order analytical thinking that will make them more suitable for the demands of today’s labour market.  

Additionally, the tradition of Liberal education is based on a concern with the whole man or woman; hence the acquisition of learning skills goes with a concomitant emphasis on character development. Literature, because of its concern with the complexities of human motivation and action, has an in-built tendency to impart moral and spiritual lessons which make its students so much more sensitive to, and empathetic with, the plight of others while developing a critical attitude to society. The problems of individuals and of society with which students of literature empathise are often imaginatively or creatively projected in the three literary genres of drama, prose fiction and poetry. 

Objectives

English Language Component

The objectives of the undergraduate English language component are stated below:

 (i)  train students to acquire adequate communicative competence in both the spoken and written varieties of the English language, thereby giving them a good grounding and effective mastery of the Language in its various applications to achieve adequate self-expression and self-actualisation;

(ii)   equip the students with the knowledge of the forms and features of the varieties of English used in different professional domains such as business communication, legal communication, electronic broadcast media, print journalism, advertising and sports commentaries, book publishing, and biography writing; 

(iii)   equip the students with adequate linguistic knowledge of the English Language through a detailed study of its sound system, its lexicon, its syntax, semantics and usage;

(iv)   adequately prepare the students to pursue postgraduate studies in English Language or Linguistics, and to take up teaching and research opportunities at the appropriate level of education;

(v)   orient students towards self-employment by a focus on skills such as writing (e.g. of articles in magazines, of speeches; designing and presenting special programmes on radio or TV, designing and publishing magazines, etc.), creative writing, and other kinds of original output through independent thought, inventiveness and creativity; and

(vi)   enable students to overcome deficiencies in their English. 

Literature-in-English Component

The objectives of the undergraduate Literature-in-English component are stated below:

(i)   produce graduates who possess an informed literary and aesthetic sensibility and intellectual tools to appreciate any literary stimulus and event;

(ii)   equip students with adequate knowledge of major landmarks in Literature-in-English in all genres and periods;

(iii)  Produce skillful and eloquent users of English for literary and artistic creativity;

(iv)  impart a humanistic perspective to students by acquainting them with literature as an expression of lofty ideas and aspirations;

(v)  train students to relate literary works and experiences to their social environment;

(vi)  stimulate in the students the aptitude for creativity and innovation in the exploration of investment opportunities in the culture and art industry;

(vii) encourage knowledge of  literature on regional and continental bases in order to apply their interpretations in relation to their own literary cultural experiences;

(viii)  analyze materials and examine the relevance of multiple interpretations in the diverse society; and

ix)  discuss representative literary texts and critical theory to enhance a life-long learning process.

TITLE OF DEGREE:  B.A.(Hons.) English

Admission Requirements to English Department

COURSE	R E Q U I R E M E N T S		UTME SUBJECTS	SPECIAL CONSIDERATION(WAIVER)/REMARKS
	DIRECT ENTRY	UTME
ARABIC	At least two ‘A’ Level passes to include Literature in English and one other Arts or Social Science Subject	Five ‘O’ level credit passes to include Literature in English, English Language and three other Arts/Social Science Subjects	Literature in English, one other Arts subject and another Arts of Social Science subject	DIRECT ENTRYUNILORIN accepts NCE with English major.UTMEUNILORIN accepts any Arts/Social Science Subject.

Programme Structure

The Programme, like other first-degree programmes in the Faculty of Arts, will run for four academic sessions of eight semesters for UTME students and three academic sessions of six semesters for Direct Entry students.