HOD’s Welcome Message

In a country where English is a major official language, a 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 students are also expected to study various literary works and be creative. There is therefore, need for improved knowledge of English and the acquisition of adequate oral and written skills by them. English graduates from Nigerian universities should be clearly and positively identified with articulate speech, adequate proficiency in pronunciation, correctness of grammar and usage, and elegance and style in diction, expression, and in the choice of an appropriate variety of English for use in the various administrative and professional job opportunities available in the labour market. In literary and creative writing domains, and in further postgraduate studies in language and literature, on less is expected.

Objectives

This programme is designed to achieve the following objectives:

1. To train students to acquire adequate communicative competence in both the spoken and written varieties of the English language and literature, thereby giving them a good grounding and effective mastery of the language in its various applications to achieve adequate self-expression and self-actualization; and train students to appreciate the relevance of literature to society.
2. To 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.
3. To 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.
4. To adequately prepare the students for readiness to pursue postgraduate studies in English language, linguistics, and to take up teaching and research at the appropriate levels of education.
5. To 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.
6. To enable students appreciate and critic the various genres of written and oral literature and write creatively