The Department of English Language and Literature was one of the original fifteen departments of Chinese Culture University.

Professor Shih-Chiu Liang, our first chair, was a renowned essayist, translator, scholar of English literature, and educator. The chairs over the years have included the following distinguished scholars: Dijun Li, Han-zhong Wang, Yao-kun Kuang, Guang-zu Xing, Yuan-ning Wen, Wen-yan Cao, Shi-yi Wang, Zhen-ying Yan, Yong-zhao Chen, Qing-gang Liu, Chong-kun Yao, Wu-chang Zhang, and Min-chieh Chou (梁實秋、李迪俊、王漢中、鄺耀坤、邢光祖、溫源寧、曹文彥、王士儀、閻振瀛、陳永昭、劉慶剛、姚崇昆、張武昌、周敏潔).The current chair is Professor Chia-Yin Huang (黃嘉音), who has been chairing the Department since August 2018. Over the years, the chairs and faculty members have devoted themselves to the improvement of curriculum, increase of academic activities (such as publishing academic journals and organizing conferences), escalation of intern programs, and expansion of international exchange (short-term overseas study, exchange programs, etc.)

The Graduate Institute of Western Literature was established in October 1968 and changed to the Graduate Institute of English Language and Literature in 1999. In 2013, it become the graduate program under the Department of English Language and Literature. Originally, the graduate program offered courses in the study of English and American literature. In 2013, it began to offer training and courses in the field of English teaching. The head of the program over the years includes the following prominent scholars: Yuan-ning Wen, Lun Ai, Yao-kun Kuang, Guang-zu Xing, Wen-yan Cao, Zhen-ying Yan, Yong-zhao Chen, Qing-gang Liu, Yi-lu Teng, Shan-xiong Ding, Wu-chang Zhang, and Min-chieh Chou (溫源寧、艾倫、鄺耀坤、邢光祖、曹文彥、閻振瀛、陳永昭、劉慶剛、滕以魯、丁善雄、張武昌、周敏潔). During Professor Guang-zu Xing's term, Mr. Yu-tang Lin was the Visiting Chair Professor, benefiting a lot of students then. Unfortunately, the program ceased to recruit students in 2019 due to incremental decrease of students in the past decade, ending 50 years of contribution to the studies of English and American literature in Taiwan.