English was first taught as an academic subject at the University (alongside Philosophy, the Classics and Italian) during the first decades of British rule in the nineteenth century. At the time, students joining the Law Course were required to read a selection of some of the main works of canonical British writers within a restricted syllabus. It was in the early twentieth century that the notion of English as an academic discipline within its own right was more strongly pursued and that Professor Eric Shepherd expanded the scope of English Studies in the Faculty of Arts. He cultivated an excellent rapport with his students and eventually published an interesting personal memoir, entitled Malta and Me (1926). He was succeeded by Professor Owen J. Fogarty, an eccentric and ebullient lecturer from University College, Dublin. Fogarty was fond of declaiming poetry and of provoking his students into discussions on literature and the current political issues of the day. He encouraged extra-curricular activities and eventually donated a gig to the University Boat Club which bore his name ('Owen J'). After Fogarty's sudden death, the Chair was offered to Alan Bliss, a medieval scholar of repute, who published the Oxford annotated edition of Sir Orfeo, a medieval verse romance. When Bliss left to take up a teaching post in Ankara University, Dr Donald Sultana, who was then engaged in writing his scholarly work on Coleridge in Malta, was invited to take over the administration of the Department. In 1961, Richard James Beck, a lecturer at the University of St Andrews, Scotland was appointed to the Chair of English. Beck, a charismatic figure, was instrumental in expanding the syllabus into a fully-fledged Honours programme and introduced courses in Old English and Middle English literature. His lectures on Chaucer and Milton were inspirational and students enjoyed the wit and humour with which they were delivered. He published an annotated edition of the Wife of Bath's Tale and was working on the Longman Annotated edition of the Complete Works of Chaucer when he died suddenly in 1979. Under his efficient administration, the Department expanded considerably and foreign and local lecturers were invited to give variety of courses in language and literature. It was at this time that Dr (later Professor) David Farley-Hills, an expert on Rochester, joined the Department. The Language and Linguistics component of the Honours course was enhanced with the arrival of the linguist Philip Riley, who set up the departmental Language Laboratory and lectured on Phonetics and various aspects of contemporary linguistics. Beck also established the principle of the Department's Honours degree maintaining comparability in standards of expectation and achievement with those in British universities, and invited the Cambridge scholar, Professor Ian Jack, to act as External Examiner. Other External Examiners who have visited the Department over the past thirty years include: F. W. Bateson (Oxford), John Lawlor (East Anglia), Molly Mahood (Kent), Arthur Humphreys (Leicester), Arthur Pollard (Hull), John Carey (Oxford), Timothy Webb (Bristol), Nicholas Roe (St Andrews) and Michael O'Neill (Durham). 

Subsequent Heads of Department were Professor Daniel Massa, under whose direction the study of Commonwealth Literature and of Linguistics was expanded, Professor Peter Vassallo, under whose direction the study of Romantic literature, Modernism and Comparative Literature was enhanced and Professor Ivan Callus who introduced a new undergraduate programme and a Taught M.A. in three streams; Modern and Contemporary Literature and Criticism; English, Culture and the Media and English Language.

Since 2014 has been Professor James Corby Head of Department.