The new Department of Languages was created on the 22nd of May 2001, by the decision of the then Governing Council of Kaduna Polytechnic, under the chairmanship of Professor Dahiru Yahaya. The department was not created in a vacuum, it was established along with the new School of General Studies comprising three (3) new departments:
Languages - Carved out of former Mass Communication and Languages, and the defunct Liberal Studies.
Legal Studies - Carved out of Local Government Studies.
Social Sciences - Carved out of the former Liberal Studies and Business Administration. The English Language unit of the defunct Liberal Studies was merged with Languages.

The old department of languages was one of the foundation departments in the defunct Staff Development Centre which metamorphosed into the College of Administrative and Business Studies (CABS). The department was basically a servicing department providing support services to all academic deparments in the Polytechnic in the area of Languages, (English and French) Communication Skills and Literature.

The major challenge of the department is the desire to produce students who possess above-average communicative competence. Because of the generally poor entry results of students in English Language and the horrible perception that technicians, technologists and engineers do not necessarily need to possess high communication skills in English Language, there is a general luke-warm attitude to the study of English Language. This is a challenge to the department.

A source of pride for the department is that its students are everywhere in Nigeria, as there is hardly anyone who is a graduate of Kaduna Polytechnic that has not benefitted from the quality instruction of the Department of Languages. To the credit of the department is the fact that it has produced the highest number of foreign students within kaduna Polytechnic, while it has over the years, taught Intensive English to students from Guinea Bissau. Uptill now, the department still trains students from Niger Republic, Chad Republic and the Republic of Cameroon (among others) in Intensive English.
Many of these students have benefitted from added university programmes in Nigeria, while it is to the credit of the department that the Mass Communication department, which is now an autonomous department, was conceived.

FUTURE PROJECTIONS
With the large number of highly qualified and experienced academic staff that the department has at its disposal, it is hoped that the Kaduna Polytechnic Diploma in English and Arabic Languages will soon be converted to National Diploma and even Higher National Diploma. Certificate and Diploma Programmes are in the pipeline for Hausa and French Languages.
Currently, the departmental Certificate programmes are being upgraded to Kaduna Polytechnic Certificates. With enhanced and improved syllabi, the certificate programmes will continue to feed the Diploma programmes with qualitative candidates.

The part-time Arabic and English Language programmes have helped a lot of people who would ordinarily not have the opportunity for formal education. They have helped a good number of recipients to now aspire for university education, especially in Arabic programmes.

Furthermore, the department of Languages is consistently patronised by organisations and individuals for language translation activities notable amongst which are Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (for translating French to English), Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative and Rural Development Bank (NACRDB) for translating its brochures and leaflets from English to Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. When new states were created in Nigeria, the department gave Intensive English Language coaching to some civil servants (especially typists) from some newly created states.

The department has popularised the name of Kaduna Polytechnic internationally through its Intensive English Programme. Students from non-English speaking countries in Africa and Europe such as Niger Republic (French Speaking), Cameroon (French speaking), Angola (Portuguese speaking), Cape Verde (Portuguese speaking), and Swiss Pilots (Europe) have been successfully trained to speak fluent English by the department of Languages.
The department has a very good relationship with the British Council and Alliance Francaise especially now that the department is working on floating a Diploma programme in French.

There are some lecturers in the department that are specially endowed and have worked through research activities to identify the problems militating against the teaching and learning of English Language in Kaduna Polytechnic. They have successfully proffered useful solutions to these problems. Large classes used to be the bane of English Language teaching especially in the College of Administrative and Business Studies (CABS), Kaduna Polytechnic. Today, large classes no longer constitute a problem in English teaching in this situation.
Teaching improvement was found to be necessary for success. Lecturers in this department researched into the needs (needs analysis) of students and came up with better teaching methods which are helping both students' and lecturers' achievement in the institution. The department therefore no longer teaches communication skills only but also English for specific purposes.

CABS - College of Administrative and Business Studies

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