| Writing,one of the four basic skills of English,is a mode of the output of language and an embodiment of comprehensive language application ability.It is necessary for students to get the skill.However,students always pay little attention on it.They think that writing is too difficult for them.When write compositions,they use a lot of knowledge such as grammar,vocabulary,stylistics and discourse,but they don’t know how to use them properly and they tend to spend little time on writing.As a result,there are many problems in their writing,such as lack of organization,lack of cohesion and coherence.Consequently,it is essential for teachers to help students solve these problems.After learning the thematic theory,the author realizes the significance of theme and thematic progression pattern in teaching cohesion and coherence of English writing.Then,this study is put forward,which attempts to study how teachers use them effectively to help students improve their English writing ability.Combined with previous studies at home and abroad,this thesis will try to answer the following three questions : 1)What are the common theme and thematic progression pattern used in English writing? 2)Which theme and thematic progression pattern are more suitable for English writing teaching? 3)How do English teachers improve students’ performance and awareness in English writing with the help of these suitable theme and thematic progression patterns? Based on these three questions,the quantitative analysis,teaching study and questionnaire are chosen as the research methodology.There are two stages in the study,the first stage is the quantitative analysis of students’ compositions,and the second stage is the teaching study.The results of the first stage provide a great guidance for the selection of teaching content in the later stage.In the first stage,150 compositions of grade three students in Jigang Senior High School are selected as the analysis material.During the analysis,the author analyzes the main theme and thematic progression pattern used in students’ writing.Then,the author analyzes the high-scored compositions and finds out which themeand thematic progression pattern are more useful for English writing.In the second stage,the teaching study is carried out with grade one students in Jigang Senior High School who don’t have too much pressure from the College Entrance Examination.Class 7 and Class 8 are chosen as study classes.Class 7 is taught in the direct method and Class 8 is taught in the indirect method,which helps author figure out how English teachers can improve students’ performance in English writing with the help of suitable theme and thematic progression patterns.After three months’ study and data analysis,it is found that: 1)The themes used in senior high school English writing are simple theme,multiple theme and clausal theme.In high-scored compositions,multiple theme and clausal theme are more frequently used,while the simple theme is less frequent.2)The thematic progression patterns used in senior high school English writing are the constant theme pattern,simple linear theme pattern,derived theme pattern and alternative theme pattern.Besides,students who get high scores in writing are good at using the four thematic progression patterns properly in writing.3)Both the indirect method and direct method in teaching theme and thematic progression pattern can improve students’ writing awareness of cohesion and coherence,hence teachers can teach the thematic theory in direct or indirect way.However,the effect of indirect method is much better.Therefore,it can be concluded that indirect method is more effective to improve students’ awareness of cohesion and coherence in writing and the teacher should teach the thematic theory in an indirect way.However,due to the limitations,there are a lot of shortcomings in the study,which needs further studies.There is no doubt that teaching theme and thematic progression pattern to students is of great guiding significance for teachers. |
PDF Full Text Request