Established in 1992, the Department of English Language and Literature is one of Khazar University's largest. Its faculty includes experienced Azerbaijani scholars and teachers of English as well as visiting professors. Its program for teaching English aims to provide comprehensive coverage of the grammatical structure and lexical system of English, via rigorous, balanced practice across the four language domains of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. This has been the aim since inception.
That is not to say that the Department of English Language and Literature is concerned solely with spoken and written communication skills in contemporary English. Its instructors endeavor to impart to students a deep appreciation for American and British literature (going back centuries) and a solid foundation in such allied fields as linguistics and translation studies.
Departmental course offerings run the gamut, in a variety of regards. There are, of course, elementary, intermediate, and advanced courses in general English. The discrete courses on American literature and British literature are being supplemented, increasingly, by the viewpoint that English is now an international language, whose literature is no longer confined to (or monopolized by) the United States and the United Kingdom. There are, moreover, language studies courses of various degrees of specialization. The Department of English Language and Literature is Khazar University's foremost steward of English-language competence, ensuring language command appropriate for productive study through the medium of English for all undergraduates, in addition to meeting or exceeding the needs of its own undergraduate majors and students enrolled in any of its numerous graduate courses.
The Department of English Language and Literature is very nearly as old as the university in which it is located. It is at this point a firmly established body within the larger organization, and it will, doubtlessly, both contribute to and benefit from the future growth of Khazar University itself.