The study of modern languages at the University of Salamanca dates back to 1952, when a chair in German and English Studies and two posts of assistant lecturer were established within the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature. Thus the University of Salamanca can be said to have pioneered the subject of English Philology in Spain.

However, it was not until the 1970s that a separate Department of English Philology emerged, when as a result of the General Law of Education of 1970, departments took over responsibility for teaching and research. From 1973 onwards, English Studies formed part of the German Philology section of the Faculty of Philology, and the new department began to take shape under Javier Coy Ferrer, who had become the first Professor of English Studies in 1971. In 1983, the name of the department was changed to that of “The Department of English and North American Language and Literature”, a title which reflected the subjects taught in the department, but which was somewhat awkward. As a result, in 1996, the department became the Department of English Philology.

Until the introduction of the curriculum of 1973 (implemented in 1975), subjects related to English Philology were taught only in the last three years of the five-year degree course, the initial two of which were devoted to subjects taken by all students in the Faculty, and which included Classical Languages, Spanish, Philosophy, Geography and the History of Art. With the introduction of the new curriculum in 1973, English Language was studied from the first year, while the study of English Literature was initiated in the third year. The last two years of the degree course focused exclusively on Linguistics and English and American Literature, and the qualification obtained became that of Bachelor in Philology (German Philology: English) [Licenciado en Filología (Especialidad de Filología Germánica: Inglés)]. As a result of yet another curriculum reform in 1993, (modified in 2000), the degree was for the first time named that of Bachelor in English Philology. In the academic year 2010-2011, with the introduction of the European Higher Education Area, the degree was re-named Grado en Estudios Ingleses, which is intended to lead to a Master’s qualification. The Department of English Philology offers two distinct Master’s courses: a “Master in Advanced English Studies: Languages and Cultures in Contact”, and a “Master in Secondary and Further Education and Language Teaching”.

Since becoming a department in its own right in 1971, the Department of English Philology under its different names has been chaired by Javier Coy Ferrer (1971-1986), Gudelia Rodríguez Sánchez (1986-1988), Román Álvarez Rodríguez (1988-1994), Catalina Montes Mozo (1994-2000), Antonio Rodríguez Celada (2000-2008), Antonio López Santos (2008-2016) and Ana Mª Fraile Marcos (2016-).