Founded in March 2002, the Department of Foreign Languages is one of the 26 colleges (departments and institutes) of Northwest A&F University. The department began to enroll undergraduates in English in 2000; master's students in Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in 2007 after the approval in 2006; undergraduates in International Education of Chinese in 2019; and Master of Translation (MTI) in 2020.

The department is responsible for the teaching of foreign languages in English majors, master's and non-English majors, master's and doctoral students, covering English, Japanese, Russian, French, Spanish and other languages. Apart from undertaking foreign language training for researchers and teachers of the university, and providing long-term translation and interpretation for the university and Yangling Demonstration Zone, the department also assumes translation and English editing for the university’s English website and various academic journals.

The Department has formed a strong contingent of experienced teachers over the past decades. Currently there are 127 faculty and staff, including 116 full-time teachers with 2 professors, and 34 associate professors; among them there are 12 doctorate degree holders and 90 master's degrees; and more than half of the teachers have overseas study for over a year.

The department is composed of the Department Office, the First Teaching and Research Section for College English, the Second Teaching and Research Section for College English, the Teaching and Research Section for English Major, the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Section for Graduate Students, the Teaching and Research Section for International Education of Chinese, the Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology Translation, the Language Teaching Center, the Department Library and Audio-visual Studio.

The Language Teaching Center is a university-level laboratory managed by the department. The center, well-equipped with advanced multifunction facilities, includes 2 professional basic laboratories, 10 basic language laboratories, 1 integrated professional laboratory, 1 simultaneous interpretation laboratory etc. More than 800 seats are available for the freshmen and sophomore to have audio-visual teaching of English. The center also provides experimental teaching for English major students, and carries out the national university English tests of different levels, and National Mandarin Test (Northwest A&F University Test Station) and other national examination tasks.