Theme and Thematic Progression in English Writing Teaching

Abstract

Theme and thematic progression (T/TP) is a major aspect of the way that speakers construct their messages in a way which makes them fit smoothly into the unfolding language event. While studies have illustrated the usefulness of observing T/TP to identify English learners’ writing difficulties and suggested that T/TP should be included in English writing lessons to help students write more coherently, there has been little more than theoretical advice as to how teachers could apply the theory of T/TP, and very few studies have developed and studied teaching materials informed by T/TP. The present study provides an instructional package in T/TP for Chinese EFL students by examining theories in Systemic Functional Grammar and reviewing relevant literature. The activities in this instructional package are designed to build students’ meta-knowledge of coherence and T/TP in order to give students more grammatical resources to improve the coherence of their writing, help them become aware of how information and ideas should flow in a text so that it could be easily understood by the reader. In addition, students would apprehend which T/TP patterns are valued in English writing and have the opportunities to apply this knowledge to improve their writing.

Keywords: Theme, thematic progression, English writing