Theme And Thematic Progression In Chinese College Students’ English Writing

Theme and thematic progression (T/TP) is a major aspect of how speakers/writers organize their messages in a way which makes them integrate into the unfolding text smoothly. Theme is the starting point of a message and orients the listener/reader to the message that is about to be perceived; it is followed by Rheme, the remainder of the message in a clause where the Theme is developed. As the text unfolds, the Themes connect to the Themes and Rhemes of preceding clauses in various ways, which form patterns of thematic progression. T/TP makes a significant contribution to the coherence of a text which refers to the logical connections that listeners or readers perceive in a written or oral text. However, previous investigations have shown repeatedly that English learners have problems using T/TP for they consistently overuse or underuse certain Themes and TP patterns, which have led to studies demonstrating how appropriate use of T/TP could improve coherence in English writing. A proliferation of studies have suggested that the theory of T/TP should be included in writing lessons, but have offered little more than theoretical advice. There have been only a very limited number of studies trying to investigate with empirical evidence whether and how training in T/TP can influence the way that English learners use T/TP in their English output. In addition, there have been very little specific information on how teachers could apply the theory of T/TP in writing lessons and very few studies that have developed and studied teaching materials informed by T/TP.The primary purpose of the present study is to examine the effects of training on Chinese college students’use of T/TP in their English writing, which involved a description of T/TP in Chinese college students’English writing, the delivery of training in T/TP to Chinese college students, a description of T/TP in post-training Chinese college students’English writing and analysis of how Chinese college students used T/TP differently (if this were the case) in post-training writing from pre-training writing. The training in T/TP used in this research was developed by drawing on relevant research and Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG). A post-training questionnaire was also included to provide supplementary evidence to the findings from analysis of Chinese college students’ English writing. The study is quasi-experimental, using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. Two classes of second-year Chinese college students majoring in English and one class of American college students were recruited. One class of Chinese college students were assigned as the experimental group (labeled as EEL group) and the other as the control group (labeled as CEL group). They were asked to write on assigned topics within a given time limit and these writing were collected to be used as pre-training writing (for experimental group) and pre-writing (for control group). The class of American students also wrote on the same topics within the same given time limit and they provided writing for native speaker group (labeled as NS group). The experimental group then received a ten-week training on T/TP. After the training, a questionnaire was administered to the students in the experimental group in which they were asked to respond to both closed questions and open questions regarding how they perceived the training in terms of difficulty, usefulness, applicability, etc. Then students in both EEL group and CEL group were asked to write on assigned topics within a given time limit for a second time and their writings were collected to be used as post-training writing (for experimental group) and post-writing (for control group). All the writings were analyzed in terms of T/TP within SFG theoretical framework, and the post-training questionnaires were also analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively, for the purpose of investigating the effects of training on Chinese college students’use of T/TP.The findings suggested that the training in T/TP affected Chinese college students’ use of T/TP positively in the following aspects:(1) interpersonal Themes in terms of textual metafunction,(2) marked Themes in terms of thematic markedness, and (3) linear progressions, constant progressions and new Themes in terms of TP patterns. Linear progressions and new Themes were found to be significantly different between EEL pre-and post-training writing; the use of linear progression in EEL post-training writing was found to be in accord with that in NS writing; the differences in marked Themes, interpersonal Themes and constant progressions were also found to be less significant in comparison of EEL post-training writing and NS writing than in the comparison of EEL pre-training writing and NS writing. These findings revealed that Chinese college students displayed similar performances as or moved closer to native speakers in their post-training writing in interpersonal Themes in terms of textual metafunction, marked Themes in terms of thematic markedness, and linear progressions, constant progressions and new Themes in terms of TP patterns. The research also revealed that Chinese college students deviated significantly from English native speakers in T/TP in their pre-training writing because they tended to overuse interpersonal Themes in the form of modal adjuncts for "opinion" and "persuasion" as well as mood-marking Themes, marked Themes in the form of "manner" and "contingency", and conjunctive adjuncts signaling "temporal","additive" and "adversative". They also used significantly less linear and constant progressions that could help with text development and significantly more contextual and new Themes. The answers from the post-training questionnaires were analyzed as complementary evidence to the findings based on how Chinese college students in EEL group perceived the training. Pedagogical and methodological implication as well as limitations in the study were discussed and suggestions for future work were also provided.