Textual Function's Contribution To Text Construction

Text construction is one of the important aspects of English writing teaching. However, for a long time, linguists and language teachers devoted most of their time into the explicit devices, such as grammar and lexical cohesion, to investigate text construction at the micro-level, neglecting the other two implied devices, namely, thematic structure and information structure. Actually, thematic structure, information structure and cohesion system are interrelated constituents of Textual Function and they play distinct roles respectively in text construction. The thesis attempts to investigate whether the teaching of Textual Function can improve student writers' ability of or can foster their awareness of text construction.The thesis focuses on the practical significance of Textual Function's contribution to text construction in EFL writing teaching. And there are altogether five chapters on the whole.The first chapter is the introduction, which sets out from the present situations of EFL writing teaching and non-English majors writing practice. Consequently, the researcher puts forward five research questions and demonstrates the necessity and significance of the study. The second chapter is concerned with the theoretical foundation of the research. By illustrating the three sub-systems of Textual Function, the researcher relates them to text construction one by one. Chapter three is the research methodology. The present study is divided into three stages: (1) pre-training writing test and questionnaire. It aims to collect the related data on subjects' presentation of text construction in writing task 1 and their original comprehension on text construction. (2) text-construction-oriented writing course. This stage focuses on the classroom instruction and student writers' practice. Based on the three aspects of Textual Function, the researcher illustrates the knowledge of theme types, main TP patterns, Given-New information distribution and various cohesive ties. By learning and practicing, the students integrate this knowledge into writing practices. (3) Post-training writing test, questionnaire and interview. This stage aims to collect the related data on subjects' presentation of text construction in writing task 2 and their views towards the contributions of Textual Function to text construction. Except for illustrating the research procedure, the chapter also includes the subject selection, the rating of writing samples and the correlation analysis of the writing samples written in different periods. The forth chapter is the results and discussions. Based on the rationale introduced in chapter two, the researcher obtains related results by contrasting the writing products written in different periods and then makes a correlation analysis. Through contrastive analysis on the applications of thematic structure, information structure and various cohesive devices in different writing tasks, implications to pedagogical practice are derived. The last chapter is conclusion. To each research questions, the researcher offers the matching findings. The limitations of the study and the directions of further research are also presented in this chapter.Through the introduction of the Textual Function and the analysis of sample compositions, we can say that the integration of this theory into English writing is both theoretically sound and practically feasible. However, this is just a tentative case study and the small sample size limits to some extent the generalization of the findings made in the study. So further study is needed in the future.