AN INVESTIGATION OF THEME AND THEME PROGRESSION OF STUDENTS’ EXPOSITION TEXTS

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study investigating Theme types and Thematic progression patterns in students’ texts. The study involved 12 students in the second semester taking the subject Writing for Academic Purposes focusing on argumentative texts, including exposition, discussion, and response to literary works. In the interest of space, this paper will centre around twelve (12) students’ exposition texts, analysed using functional grammar, especially the Theme system. These texts represent different levels of achievement, based on students’ grade point average (GPA) (low: <3, mid: 3.01-3,5, and high: 3,51-4). The results of the analysis indicate that despite some problematic aspects, all the texts employed various Theme types, including topical, interpersonal and textual Themes, and different Thematic progressions, including the zigzag, the reiteration, multiple Theme patterns and also the combinations of the three Theme patterns. All these, in many ways, show all students’ capacity to tackle longer, more complex texts and the responsibility of helping the reader or viewer navigate their way through the text. This suggests that explicit knowledge of Theme and Thematic progressions is important to allow students to produce a cohesive and coherent text. It is recommended that Theme and Theme progression be an essential part of writing courses to help students organise the text to make it accessible to the remote reader.