Abstract:

Interpreting literary text constitutes one of the key components of literary education provided as part of university philological studies. The importance of the issue has been emphasised and promulgated in a wide range of domestic (R. Bílik, M. Kubuš, J. Kušnír, I. Lacko, D. Petríková, A. Pokrivčák etc.) and international publications (P. Carolli, E. Chambers & M. Gregory, D. Lodge, E. Thaler etc.). However, the tendency to eliminate the text as a central object of analysis and replace it with literary-historical and literary-theoretical knowledge about texts still prevails in domestic literary teaching (Bílik, 2009). This poses an impediment to promoting and developing students’ interpretative skills, argumentative skills, and critical thinking at the university level. The study aims to analyse and assess the interpretive essays produced by the English language students in years 1 to 4 of the current academic year and thus identify and characterise English literary education problem areas and design strategies for streamlining the teaching process.

Keywords:

Interpretative skills, argumentative skills, critical thinking, higher education, literary education, academic literacy.