The Application Of Thematic Structure Analysis To English Reading

These years, with the development of linguistics, Systemic Functional Grammar has increasingly been regarded as providing a powerful framework for discourse analysis, among which, thematic structure is one of the major means to realize textual meta-function.This thesis reports on how thematic structure analysis is used in an English reading teaching class. Based on the Systemic Functional Grammar theory in the teaching of reading comprehension, the thematic structure analysis approach has been introduced into the traditional English classroom in China. The researcher believes that some reading strategies popular in English-speaking countries did work well in Chinese setting as long as the teachers can take into account their students' learning style. This thesis puts forward that the theme-rheme mode of textual analysis is an ideal one in English reading, and elaborates the application of the Thematic Structure Analysis approach to English course in China. After the experiment, the researcher found that the students have greatly improved their reading speed and achieved more effective reading comprehension. In order to justify the practical and effective value of thematic theory, a big part of the thesis contributes to the application of thematic structure analysis to the teaching of English reading.In brief, this paper intends to draw on the thematic theory of discourse analysis with reading views and approaches to reveal the process of reading comprehension. In addition, it simultaneously uses some experiments to illustrate the feasibility of thematic theory for the teaching of college English reading. At the end of the paper, some suggestions have been pointed out, aiming at giving some enlightenment to English teachers and students.