Thematic progression in reading texts of the textbook tiếng anh 10, book 1 a systemic functional analysis

Thus, this paper aims to analyze the theme structure and thematic progression patterns in non-conversational texts of the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1 to find out the preferred theme st

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

******  ******

PHẠM THỊ NGUYỆT

THEMATIC PROGRESSION IN READING TEXTS OF THE

TEXTBOOK TIẾNG ANH 10, BOOK 1:

A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS

Phân tích sự tiến triển đề ngữ trong các bài đọc trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng

Anh 10, tập 1 theo đường hướng chức năng hệ thống

M.A THESIS

Hanoi, 2018

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

******  ******

PHẠM THỊ NGUYỆT

THEMATIC PROGRESSION IN READING TEXTS OF THE

TEXTBOOK TIẾNG ANH 10, BOOK 1:

A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS

Phân tích sự tiến triển đề ngữ trong các bài đọc trong sách giáo khoa Tiếng

Anh 10, tập 1 theo đường hướng chức năng hệ thống

DECLARATION

I, Pham Thi Nguyet, hereby declare that the thesis entitled ―Thematic progression in

reading texts of the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1: A systemic functional analysis.‖

reports the result of the study conducted by myself The thesis is submitted to College of Foreign Languages-Vietnam National University for Degree of Master in TESOL I also state that the substance of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for any degree to any other universities or substitutions

Signature

Pham Thi Nguyet

Approved by SUPERVISOR

Dr Nguyen Thi Minh Tam

Date:………

Secondly, I would like to thank all lecturers and the staff of Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their useful lectures, materials, guidance and enthusiasm during my course

Last but not least, I would like to show my deepest gratitude to my family and friends who are always supporting me with their sympathy and encouragement

ABSTRACT

Thematic progression is a salient aspect in the study of Systemic Functional Linguistics(SFL) as it can function as a cohesive tie that is an important way to organize texts It combines the thematic structure and textual coherence, revealing the dynamic distribution of theme and rheme in the discourse and the organization form of the discourse As the carrier of information, guidance and structure, texts are regarded as essential teaching and learning materials The importance of texts has drawn the attention of writers, teachers and learners Thus, this paper aims to analyze the theme structure and thematic progression patterns in non-conversational

texts of the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1 to find out the preferred theme structures

and thematic progression patterns The findings of this investigation indicate that the most frequent theme and thematic progression pattern are simple theme and constant theme

Obviously, there are some inner relations between thematic structure and thematic progression patterns and the topics of the texts and genres Different topics and different genres have their preferred thematic structure and thematic progression patterns The results of this study may be facilitative in composing coherent and cohesive texts and helping writers and readers understand the inner structure of texts deeply for effective writing

Keywords: Theme, Rheme, Thematic progression, Thematic progression patterns

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Cont : Contiguous Gap : Gapped Int : Integration Sep : Separation SFL : Systemic Functional Linguistics Synt : Syntactic

TP : Thematic Progression TPP : Thematic Progression pattern TPPs : Thematic Progression patterns

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vii

PART 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Significance of Research 2

3 Research aims and objectives 2

4 Research questions 3

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Scope of the study 3

7 Design of the Study 3

PART 2 DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW 5 1.1 The system of theme 5

1.1.1 Theme and rheme 5

1.1.2 Types of themes 6

1.2 Thematic progression 8

1.2 1 Definition of thematic progression 8

1.2.2 Thematic progression patterns 9

1.3 Previous studies 12

1.4 Summary 13

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 14

2.1 Data Corpus 14

2.2 Research methods 14

2.3 Analytical framework 14

2.4 Data collection procedure 16

2.5 Data analysis procedure 17

2.6 Summary 17

CHAPTER 3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 19

3.1 General findings 19

3.2 Textual analysis 20

3.2.1 The analysis of text 1 20

3.2.2 The analysis of text 2 22

3.2.3 The analysis of text 3 23

3.2.4 The analysis of text 4 26

3.2.5 The analysis of text 5 28

3.2.6 The analysis of text 6 29

3.2.7 The analysis of text 7 31

3.2.8 The analysis of text 8 32

3.2.10 The analysis of text 10 36

3.2.11 The analysis of text 11 38

3.2.12 The analysis of text 12 40

3.2.13 The analysis of text 13 43

3.2.14 The analysis of text 14 44

3.2.15 The analysis of text 15 47

3.3 Discussion 49

3.3.1 Answer to research question 1 49

3.3.2 Answer to research question 2 52

3 3 3 Summary 53

PART 3 CONCLUSION 55

1 Summary of the study 55

2 Implications 56

3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 57

3.1 Limitations of the study 57

3.2 Suggestions for further studies 58

REFERENCES 59 APPENDIX

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Figure 1: Examples of theme types 7

Figure 2 Thematic progression patterns used in this study 15

Table 1 Theme selection in the corpus 19

Table 2 Thematic progression patterns in the corpus 19

Table 3 Frequency of TPPs of text 1 21

Figure 3 TPPs of text 1 20

Table 4 Frequency of TPPs of text 2 22

Figure 4 TPPs of text 2 22

Table 5 Frequency of TPPs of Text 3 24

Figure 5 TPPs of text 3 24

Table 6 Frequency of TPPs of text 4 26

Figure 6 TPPs of text 4 26

Table 7 Frequency of TPPs of Text 5 28

Figure 7 TPPs of Text 5 28

Table 8 Frequency of TPPs of Text 6 29

Figure 8 TPPs of Text 6 29

Table 9 Frequency of TP patterns of Text 7 31

Figure 9 TPPs of Text 7 31

Table 10 Frequency of TPPs of Text 8 33

Figure 10 TPPs of Text 8 33

Table 11 Frequency of TPPs of Text 9 35

Figure 11 TPPs of Text 9 35

Table 12 Frequency of TPPs of Text 10 37

Figure 12 TPPs of Text 10 37

Table 13 Frequency of TPPs of Text 11 39

Figure 13 TPPs of text 11 39

Table 14 Frequency of TPPs of Text 12 41

Figure 14 TPPs of text 12 41

Table 15 Frequency of TPPs of Text 13 43

Figure 15 TPPs of text 13 43

Table 16 Frequency of TPPs of Text 14 45

Figure 16 TPPs of Text 14 45

Table 17 Frequency of TPPs of text 15 47

Figure 17 TPPs of text 15 47

PART 1 INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

The study of thematic progression has been widely conducted This may be due to its crucial contribution to the focus and the flow of information in a text (Carter-Thomas, 1999; Paltridge, 2006; Sade, 2007) Thematic progression is a term which refers to ―the way in which the theme of a clause may pick up, or repeat, a meaning from a preceding theme or rheme‖ (Paltrigde, 2006, p 148) It has been said that the study of this topic is interesting because it is one of the factors that

―contribute to making a text a text, as it were‖ (Rørvik, 2003, p 245) Seeing the importance of thematic progression both in and outside academic setting, hence, more exploration and investigation of thematic progression will be interesting The

texts of the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1 as any texts in the English textbooks

used in upper-secondary schools in Vietnam, are written to tell stories or events,

transmit ideas and thoughts, give explanations and ask and give advice In these

cases, texts are one‘s own story, opinion or argument for or against an issue, explanations in a straightforward manner and informal letter The specific sentence position (i.e., the connection of theme and rheme) in the texts can be the strategy of the writer to prime the readers‘ language Thus, the selection of the texts of the

textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1 was made for purposes of revealing the structure and

packaging of the information in those texts In other words, we aim at revealing their theme-rheme and thematic progression patterns in those texts Further, the study of thematic progression is worth researching since the results of the study can

be beneficial to various fields of study including translation (Rorvik, 2003) and successful testing on Discourse Structure Test (DST) (Shieh & Lin, 2011) No less important than the previous studies, this research will also give good implication to the other field of knowledge, especially ‗writing‘ Specifically, the results of this study have implications for people to know how to write different types of texts through academic language conventions Generally, the result of this study is also

beneficial to the book users including teachers and learners by helping them to consider thematic progression as an important factor in writing Besides, it is useful for the book compilers in appropriate text selection Therefore, the study of

thematic progression in the texts of the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1 is necessarily

done to enrich the linguistic landscape as well as teaching and learning

2 Significance of Research

First and foremost, the study provides the researcher herself and all other

MA students and linguistic researchers insights into the realization of theme and

thematic progression in the texts of the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1 This thesis

could be of good reference to other students and researchers who are interested in doing research related to this topic

Secondly, by studying themes and thematic progression patterns of reading

texts in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1, this thesis provides the book users,

especially English teachers and learners a better view of the organization of the reading texts in the textbook Thanks to it, teachers can have a full understanding of theme and thematic progression, basing on which they can develop suitable materials and learning activities to enhance students‘ comprehension of English texts and the cohesion of the texts students produce Accordingly, students can improve their skills in English all-sidedly

Last but not least, the study provides the book compilers the relations between thematic progression and the topic of the reading texts From that, they might take into consideration the thematic progression of the text as one factors in text selection

3 Research aims and objectives

The aim of this research is to investigate thematic progression in reading texts

of the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1

To achieve the above aims, the present study attempts to set the following objectives:

- To investigate the distribution of themes in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1

for some senior high schools in Vietnam on the first semester

- To investigate thematic progression in reading texts of the textbook Tiếng Anh

10, book 1

- To see the relations between thematic progression patterns and the topics of the reading text

4 Research questions

This research tries to explore thematic progression in the selected textbook

tittled Tiếng Anh 10, book 1 for some senior high schools in Vietnam on the first

semester The areas of investigation that formulated in the following research bellow two questions about this research:

1 What is the realization of thematic progression in the reading texts of the

textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1?

2 What are the possible relations between thematic progression patterns and the topics of the reading texts?

5 Methods of the study

This study is a discourse analysis in systemic functional approach Both quantitative and qualitative research methods are applied in this research The analysis is based on theoretical framework of Halliday (1994) and Dubois (1987)

6 Scope of the study

This thesis focuses on a small investigation on thematic progression in

reading texts of the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1 The data analyzed in this study were fifteen non-conversational texts taken from the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1

published by Vietnamese Education Publishing House cooperated by Pearson

Education Publishing Company in 2016

7 Design of the Study

The study is divided into three parts

Part 1: Introduction is concerned with the rationale for the research In addition, it

presents the significance of the study, the aims and objectives, research questions, the scope, the methods and the design of the study

Part 2: Development consists of three chapters

Chapter 1: Theoretical background and literature review provides an overview

of theoretical background and previous studies relating to the research topic

Chapter 2: Research Methodology deals with data corpus, research methods,

analytical framework, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure

Chapter 3: Findings and Discussion presents the findings and discussion of the

research based on results of the quantitative and qualitative data analysis

Part 3: Conclusion consists of the summary and limitations of the study and

provides some suggestions for further studies

PART 2 DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 The system of theme

1.1.1 Theme and rheme

Basically, there is no consensus on the definition of theme in a sentence (Erdmann, 1990) However, in general, the different uses of theme can be divided into four categories (McCabe, 1999) First, theme is considered as a topic Related

to this consideration, Halliday (1994, p 38), cited in Yang (2008), defines theme as

―what the message is concerned with: the point of departure from what the speaker

is going to say‖ in a clause Further, Halliday (1994, cited in McCabe, 1999) pointed out that ―The label ‗Topic‘ usually refers to only one particular type of theme‖ Second, theme is defined as ―the sentence element or elements, carrying the lowest degree of Communicative Dynamism (CD) within the sentence (Firbas, 2004) Third, theme is ―what is known or grasped from the context‖ (Salih, 2008) or

―what is known or given in the text‖ (Erdmann, 1990) Moreover, theme is also defined as ―the item with which we start a clause‖ (Bloor & Bloor, 2004; Halliday,

1985 cited in Erdmann, 1990; Halliday, 1994), or a sentence Apart from the four categorizations, there is one more definition of theme Theme can also be

considered as what Halliday and Hassan (1976) termed as semantic resources which

are able to link a sentence to what has gone before Nevertheless, in this paper, theme is considered as ‗what the message is concerned with‘ as Halliday says; theme in English is always realized in the first position of the clause (Eggins, 2004; Halliday, 1994; Halliday & Mathiessen, 2004)

The setting is followed by the remainder of the message – rheme Rheme is the second part of the clause in which theme is developed, and usually contains unfamiliar information, or new knowledge that a writer assumes his/her readers do not know New information, or rheme, is indispensible in order to follow the progression of the argument Theme and rheme can be recognized by looking at their distinct positions in a clause: Theme occurs first, followed by rheme

1.1.2 Types of themes

In spite of the contested nature of its definition, theme is divided into three types: (a) topical or ideational (Astuti et al 2010), (b) textual, and (c) interpersonal (Paltridge, 2006) Topical theme is a constituent in a clause which can be a participant, circumstance or process (Halliday, 1994; Halliday & Mathiessen, 2004)

A topical theme may be preceded by either interpersonal or textual theme or both Interpersonal theme refers to vocative, modal adjunct, finite verbal operator and polarity adjunct (Eggins, 1994; Halliday & Mathiessen, 2004, p 79) that exists before the topical theme and the theme indicating the point of view being taken in the clause (Paltridge, 2006, p 147) Further, what count as textual theme are continuative, conjunction, and conjunctive adjunct which also come before the topical theme Nevertheless, no less important than theme is the existence of rheme

in a clause or sentence

Themes can be classified into different types from different angles According to the complexity of the theme, it can be divided into simple theme, multiple theme and clausal theme Halliday (2000) believes that simple theme contains only one structural constituent While a multiple theme consists of two or more than two structural constituents Based on Halliday‘s three metafunctions, the multiple theme can be further divided into textual theme, interpersonal theme, and ideational theme or topical theme as well The textual theme links one part to another, and it has the function of textual cohesion It mainly includes continuative elements, structural elements and conjunctive elements The interpersonal theme is used to express one‘s mood or subjective judgment, and keep communicative meaning It can be realized by vocatives, modal words, or mood-marking words Topical element represents the topic of the sentence, and it can be performed by participants, circumstances, or processes in transitivity, which is a system in ideational function It divides people‘s outside world and inner world into several processes

Examples (1) through (5), which are simplified versions of corpus examples, provide an illustration of the type of themes found in the corpus

At schools She was very interested in her Geography

1.2 Thematic progression

1.2 1 Definition of thematic progression

The connections of thematic elements in a text are what constitutes its thematic progression (TP) The first formalization of thematic progression was detailed by Daneš (1974) As early as 1974, Daneš used the term ― thematic progression‖ to refer to the way subsequent discourse re-uses previous Themes or Rhemes according to an overall textual plan Thematic progression relates the way themes and rhemes concatenate within a text to the hierarchic organization of the text and ultimately to rhetorical purposes Daneš developed the model thematic progression and observed different patterns of matching sentences Danes's important contribution is to extend the concept of theme as point of departure of a single utterance (sentence) to that of explaining the inner connectivity of texts His basic assumption is that text connectivity is represented, among other things, by thematic progression By this he means the choice and ordering of utterance themes, their mutual concatenation and hierarchy, as well as their relation to the hyperthemes of the superior text unit (such as paragraph, chapter, etc.), to the whole text, and to the situation Thematic progression might be viewed as the skeleton of the plot.' (1974:114)

Eggins (1994) referred thematic progression to the exchange of information between successive theme and rheme pairings in a text

Paltridge (2006, p 148) pointed out that thematic progression refer to ―the way in which the Theme of a clause may pick up, or repeat, a meaning from a preceding Theme or Rheme‖ Furthermore, thematic progression is a crucial aspect for us in tracing the global flow of information throughout the text (Carter-Thomas, 1999)

In general, the term ―thematic progression‖ is defined differently by scholars However, all definitions mentioned above all share the same goals that readers and addressers need to be assured to be following the development of the text Many texts are signposted by placing elements from the rheme of one clause into the

theme of the following clause, or by repeating meanings from the theme of one clause in the theme of subsequent clauses This kind of text development is called thematic progression or thematic development

1.2.2 Thematic progression patterns

As an effective way of organizing texts, since the theories of TPPs are brought forward, some domestic and overseas linguists have deep discussions

about the theory of TPPs, others put forth their own TPPs

The first formalization of thematic progression was detailed by Daneš (1974) He described three major patterns of TP: simple linear, constant and derived

hyperthematic progression A simple linear TP involves Themes that are picked up from previous Rhemes In the constant pattern, the same (or similar) Theme is repeated throughout the text Finally, in the derived hyperthematic progression, Themes are derived from a hypertheme—a title, or a high-level topic

Dubois (1987) performed an extensive analysis of a corpus of biomedical

slide talks and integrated Daneš‘ typology into two main types: a) constant

progression, when a theme that is not new derives from a previous theme or themes

(also known as themic); b) linear progression: when the theme derives from a

previous rheme (also known as rhemic) She also added a few new types, which

reflect the fact that some progressions are not contiguous, as the ones implied in Daneš‘ account, but gapped, that is, the theme is picked up from an utterance that is not immediately preceding In addition, she included multiple realizations of all the

contiguous and gapped types, where the origin of the theme under consideration can

be traced back to different links in the text Multiple themes can be composed of

two or more previous elements (integration), or one element in a previous group (separation)

Eggins (1994) classifies three main patterns of thematic development The first type is theme reiteration/constant theme pattern As the title suggests, the first theme is repeated in the beginning of the next clauses This type is occasionally called parallel pattern The second type is zigzag/linear theme pattern The rheme

of one clause is taken up as theme of the subsequent clause The other is multiple theme/split rheme pattern The rheme of a clause has more than one component, each of which is taken in turn as theme of the subsequent clauses

In line with Daneš (1974), Paltridge (2006, p 149) defines linear theme as ― when the subject matter in the rheme of one clause is taken up in the Theme of a following clause.‖ Paltridge also defined constant theme, which he also referred to

as theme reiteration ―In this (theme reiteration or constant rheme) pattern, ‗Theme 1‘ is picked up and repeated at the beginning of next clause, signaling that each clause will have something to say about the theme‖ (Paltridge 2006, p 148) ―In

‗multiple theme‘/‘split rheme‘ progression, a rheme may include a number of different pieces of information, each of which may be taken up as the theme in a number of subsequent clauses‖ (Paltridge 2006, p 150)

Further applications of thematic progression types to scientific texts have been carried out by Van Dijk with two TP patterns: Parallel structure and Chain structure (Huang, 1988) Xu (1982) puts forward four models of TP patterns: the parallel pattern, the continuous pattern, the concentrated pattern and the Crossing pattern

In this present study, thematic progression patterns are employed by Dubois (1987) who classified TPPs into two main types: constant and linear with simple and multiple realizations of all the contiguous and gapped types She considers the hypertheme to be poorly defined In fact, it is difficult to decide what could be a Theme derived from a hypertheme In our sample corpus, we decided that all Themes that the writers had not mentioned earlier were new, that is, not derived from a hypertheme Some of those new Themes are ―newer‖ than others, in the sense that they refer to objects or concepts present in the writers‘ context However, since our aim was not to establish a hierarchy of givenness or saliency outside the text proper, we disregarded the category of progression derived from a hypertheme

As shown in Figure 2, simple linear and simple constant TPPs could be either contiguous or gapped In example (6), the elements from the rheme of the

previous clause are replaced into the theme of the following clause It is contiguous because the theme is picked up from the immediately preceding rheme

(6) A Dangdut band typically consists of a male or female lead singer, who

is backed by an unusual mix of musical instrument They can include drums or flutes from a variety of Asian or Middle East countries and modern instruments like electric guitars or organs

The following example shows simple gapped constant TPP as the meanings from the theme of one clause are repeated in the theme of subsequent clauses It is gapped since there is an intervening material before the pattern

(7) Her parents soon realised that she was a talented singer, but they

encouraged their daughter to finish her secondary school

Dubois (1987) stated that multiple TP patterns can be the result of

integration or separation Those could also be either contiguous or gapped The

integration could happen immediately after the mentioning of the elements to be integrated, or there could be intervening material The same applies for separation

In addition, integration and separation can be themic or rhemic, according to whether they originate in previous Themes or Rhemes In Example (8), an invented example, the separation has as an origin the previous Rheme, which contains two elements (topical themes underlined) This separation is rhemic and contiguous since it occurred after the immediately preceding theme This case is the one illustrated in Figure 2 (―multiple, separation, rhemic, contiguous‖)

(8) Plants around us are also great sources of ideas for other wonderful inventions The self-cleaning glass window and the fabric used to make umbrellas are both inspired by the smooth leaves of a lotus plant, with their ability to wash away dirt in the rain Another product is Velcro

The following example shows the theme ―his mother‖ conjoined with the

themes ―Thanh‘s father‖, ― Thanh‖ and ― Thanh‘s sister‖ to form the theme ― everybody in the family‖ This is an example of gapped multiple integration The gap occurs because there is an intervention in the integration All multiple are

derived in some sense, because they do not repeat a previous theme or rheme exactly, but elaborate on them

(9) His mother does the cooking Thanh's father and sister enjoy the

food she cooks very much Besides, she often shops for groceries because she

wants to choose the freshest and healthiest ingredients for the meals Thanh's father

is a strong man but he doesn't have much time for housework So he only does the

heavy lifting that requires physical strength Thanh helps with laundry and ironing

He feels happy to see his parents wearing clean and neat clothes to work Thanh's

sister contributes by sweeping the house She does it very carefully so the house is always very clean Before each meal, she lays the table, and after the meal, Thanh

does the washing up Sometimes, he breaks a bowl or a plate Everybody in the

family shares housework so that all can have some time for rest and recreation

1.3 Previous studies

Among the plethora of thematic progression studies (Astuti, Suryani & Kurniati, 2010; Hawes, 2010; Mulatsih, 2010; Rørvik, 2003; Shieh & Lin, 2011; Simpson, 2000; Soepriatmadji, 2009; Sopyan, 2011; Taboada & Lavid, 2003; Yang, 2008), some focus on the contrastive analysis of thematic progression patterns (Simpson, 2000) which is further expanded to translation (Rørvik, 2003) and some others focus on examining the role of thematic progression in culturally-academic writing system (e.g., the background of Skripsi written by English Education Department Students of Teacher Training and Education Faculty of Muria Kudus University, Christian written discourse in Nigeria, the official website of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Indonesia, thesis abstracts written by English students of FBIB Unisbank Semarang) (See also Astuti et al., 2010; Soepriatmadji, 2009; Sopyan, 2011) Furthermore, there are also examinations of thematic progression related to rhetorical structure (Taboada & Lavid, 2003), and of the role of thematic progression in successful testing of Discourse Structure Test (DST) (Shieh & Lin, 2011), in composing coherently- and cohesively-academic writing (Mulatsih, 2010), and in successful teaching of explanatory types of writing (Yang, 2008)

In Vietnam, many studies on theme-rheme structure have been carried out so far On applying the functional grammar theory in English and Vietnamese in linguistic study, many woks have been carried out relating the Theme- Rheme structure For example, Do Tuan Minh (2006) different views on Theme-Rheme in English and Do Tuan Minh (2007) made a comparative study on thematic structure

in English and Vietnamese from the systemic functional perspective Nguyen Thi Nguyet Minh (2011) carried out an investigation into the system of Theme and Rheme in Electronic News Headlines Nguyen Thi Hanh (2012) conducted a research on the structure of theme and rheme in English and Vietnamese political speeches Dang Thi Thanh Thuy (2012) investigated theme-rheme structure in English and Vietnamese poetry Vu Thi Thanh Nga (2013) carried out a research

on Theme-rheme and cohesive ties in the short story ―The last leaf‖ by O‘Henry Duong Thuy Le & Wijitsopon, Raksangob( 2013) studied cohesion in Vietnamese EFL students‘ argumentative essays through thematic progression analysis

Nevertheless, a study focusing on the patterns of thematic progression in the reading texts of the English textbook has not been conducted yet Thus, this paper aims to fill the unexplored gap

1.4 Summary

This chapter has provided readers with an overview of definitions of key terms such as Theme, Rheme, Thematic Progression It also deals with aspects of classifications of Themes and Thematic Progression patterns Besides, this chapter reviews related studies about Thematic Progression conducted by some famous scholars both in abroad and in Vietnam These studies have given readers some useful information about different aspects of the research issue However, studies about Thematic Progression of the reading texts in the textbook are still limited Therefore, there is a need to conduct a research to analyze the field of thematic progression of the reading texts in a particular English textbook in Vietnam This has prompted the writer to carry out this thesis on thematic progression of the

reading texts of the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1

CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Data Corpus

The data corpus of this study was built up from texts taken from the textbook

Tiếng Anh 10, book 1 This book belongs to the first section of the textbook Tiếng

Anh 10 and it is used for grade 10 at Vietnamese upper-secondary schools on the

first semester The textbook was published by Vietnam Education Publishing House and Pearson Education Publishing Company for the second edition in 2016 The selection of texts to be used in the corpus is based on the following criteria First, all

of the texts are non-conversational texts Secondly, the types of the texts are narrative, expository, argumentative texts and informal letters Thirdly, three texts from each topic were analyzed in the study

2.2 Research methods

The research methods employed are both quantitative and qualitative—in the sense defined by Dornyei (2007) The quantitative part of the research deals with the frequency of occurrence of themes while the qualitative aspect addresses the qualitative explanation of themes in specific texts including the interpretation of the types of theme, and the thematic progression patterns This is in line with what Sandelowski (2000) says about description—that ―all inquiries entail description, and all description entails interpretation‖ (p 335) This research, further, is the kind

of discourse grammar analysis as it tries to analyze the texts of the textbook ― Tiếng

Anh 10‖, episode 1 from a discourse based perspective, rooted in Systemic

Functional Linguistic (SFL) (See Dubois, 1987; Halliday, 1994; Halliday & Matthiesen 2004) The data analyzed in this study were taken from five units of the

textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1 published in 2016 The data taken were 15

non-conversational texts In the process of theme-rheme identification, Halliday‘s model was employed (See Halliday, 1994; Halliday & Mathiessen, 2004) Further, in this research, Thematic Progression patterns were adapted from Dubois (1987)

2.3 Analytical framework

This study applied thematic progression pattern classification adapted from Dubois (1987) which included constant, linear and multiple realizations of all the contiguous and gapped types

Figure 2 Thematic progression patterns used in this study

T1 R1

T2 (=R1) R2

T3(=R2) R3

… T8 (=T1) R8

3 Simple contiguous constant 4 Simple gapped constant

… T5 (=T1+T3) R5

5 Multiple: Integration

(themic, contiguous)

6 Multiple: Integration (themic, gapped) T1 R1 ( = R1‘+ R1‘‘)

7 Multiple: Separation

(rhemic, contiguous)

8 Multiple: Separation (rhemic, gapped) According to Dubois (1987), the TPP is simple linear when the elements

from the rheme of the previous clause are replaced into the theme of the following clause It is contiguous if the theme happens immediately after the preceding rheme, otherwise it is gapped The TPP is simple constant as the meanings from the theme

of one clause are repeated in the theme of subsequent clauses Similarly, it can be

contiguous and gapped Multiple themes could be the result of integration or

separation The integration and the separation can be themic or rhemic according to

whether they originate in previous themes or rhemes The multiple constant TPP (themic, integration) could happen immediately after the mentioning of the elements

to be integrated, or there could be intervening material The multiple linear (rhemic, separation) has as an origin the previous rheme, which contains two or more

elements

2.4 Data collection procedure

All the texts are taken from five units in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1

At the outset, data was collected in bulk Then the researcher selected 3 reading texts in each unit for the analysis The total number of the analyzed texts are 15 All

of these reading texts are non-conversational and various at length The topics of the

texts are family life, your body and you, music, for a better community and

inventions The types of the text are narrative, argumentative, expository texts and

advice-asking and advice-giving letter Wu (2003) indicates that expository text conveys information with more compact, detailed and explanatory text structures, whereas narrative text is a story telling and consists of a series of occurring events that have causal or thematic relationships Usually, there are four components in a narrative text: setting, theme, plot and resolution Wu (2003) also points out that narrative and expository texts are two genres commonly used in classrooms In order to collect enough samples (15 non-conversational texts from the textbook

Tiếng Anh 10, book 1, the printed textbook plays an important role in selecting the

relevant data Apart from the instruments above, calculation, statistics, tables, numeration are appropriately employed to eliminate irrelevant and unstable data These are also helpful for stating the results of analysis and the percentage as well

2.5 Data analysis procedure

Data collected from the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1 were analyzed

to find the answers for the two research questions First of all, the texts would be analyzed and generalized to make clear about theme selection After that, we will find out the thematic progression patterns of the texts in the textbook Data collected were analyzed quantitatively via Excel software Then frequencies and percentages are counted to help to find out types of theme and frequency of each type of thematic progression The results of this step would be presented in tables and figures Once we have the distribution rates of each theme types or thematic progression patterns in the texts, we would look for special and striking characteristics for each of them, compare them to each other and generalize the results in order to have a complete overview about the thematic progression of the whole textbook

The analysis of the corpus proceeded as follows: I considered only topical themes and, for each one of them, examined whether it was related to other elements in the previous stretch of written text If the theme was not related to any

linguistic material preceding it, then it was considered to be new As I saw in the

discussion of themes derived from a hypertheme, those new themes are usually

related to the context of situation However, since I do not consider extralinguistic

material, the category ―new‖ includes many different types If the theme under consideration is related, either through total identification or through some semantic relationship (e.g., synonymy, hypernymy, etc.), to an element mentioned earlier in the conversation, then we can classify it according to the categories displayed in Figure 1 The other type not represented in the figure, apart from New, is the

Syntactic type This refers to expletive pronouns, such as it, there, when they act as

the grammatical Subject, but have no referent

2.6 Summary

In this chapter, the author has provided readers with an overview about the methodology of the research In the first part of the chapter, the researcher gives a

thorough description about data corpus and research methods Then, detailed information about analytical framework is also mentioned In addition, this chapter also presents important information about data collection procedure and data analysis procedure In the next chapter, findings from data analysis will be discussed in detailed

CHAPTER 3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 General findings

After the 15 texts were analyzed, frequencies and percentages were measured

to find out theme types and thematic progression patterns The results of theme types were presented in table 1,and the results of thematic progression patterns were shown in table 2

Table 1 Theme selection in the corpus

Multiple Themes

135

75

64.29% 35.71 %

Table 2 Thematic progression patterns in the corpus

The findings of theme types can be shown in the table 1 above The most dominant theme type is topical theme (210 in total) which can be found in all clauses in fifteen texts Following the position of topical theme is textual theme (72)

in the second place and interpersonal theme (5) in the last position Furthermore, the

result also indicates that simple themes(135) are used more often than multiple themes(75), which is related to the characteristics of the texts to be brief and direct

From table 2, the patterns of thematic progression can be found in the whole texts with a total number of 117 patterns including 59 constant patterns, 32 linear patterns and 26 other patterns The percentages are 50.43%, 27.35% and 22.22 % respectively The findings of the thematic progression pattern presented above exhibit that the commonest thematic progression pattern used in the texts of the

10th-grade English textbook, book 1 is the constant pattern Following the position

of the constant pattern is linear one in the second position, the other pattern in the last position As for constant thematic progression pattern, the simple constant pattern is the most dominant one used in the texts Similarly, as for linear thematic progression, the most frequently used one is also the simple linear pattern In both patterns, contiguous thematic progression is used more often than gapped one

3.2 Textual analysis

3.2.1 The analysis of text 1

Table 3 below reveals the results of thematic progression patterns of text 1 The

figure3 reveals schematic thematic progression of text 1

Simple Multiple: Int

Cont Gap Cont Gap New Synt

0

0

2 33.33 %

0

0 Total= 66.67% Total= 33.33%

Linear (rhemic)

Simple Multiple: Sep

Cont Gap Cont Gap

Table 3 Frequency of TPPs of text 1

The text is about the members in Mrs Hang‘s family including the father, the daughter and the son who are sharing the household chores to make Mother‘s day special for her In this text, the total number of themes is 11, which includes 6 simple themes (54.54%) and 5 multiple themes (45.45%) with an additional textual

In this text, there is no interpersonal theme This result indicates that the simple theme is more frequently used one in the text

Table 3 presents the results of TPPs of text 3 Six TPPs are identified in this text including constant TPPs (66.67%) of the total patterns followed by new thematic patterns(33.33%) The first TP pattern used is a simple contiguous one The theme‖ Mrs Hang‖ is mentioned again in the following themes by a personal pronoun ― she‖ Therefore, the text focuses on the main character , Mrs Hang and her family For the second pattern, The writer uses a new topical theme ―today‖ after a textual theme ―but‖ which shows opposition to ― everyday‖ Thus, text readers can realize that today is special and different from the other days The next TPP is a simple gapped constant pattern The theme ― Mrs Hang‖ is repeated and put after the textual theme ― and‖ The information about her is added by this pattern Particularly, the things she does today is different from those she does as usual The fourth pattern of the text is new because the theme ―her husband and her children‖ doesn‘t have any relationship with the previous themes or rhemes With this pattern, the writer wants to provide the information that her husband and children are those who do the things for her For the next pattern, It is a simple gapped constant pattern With the theme ―she‖, the author gives exactly the things Mrs Hang does today That is watching TV The last pattern is the most important

as the topical theme― everybody in the family‖ contains 3 elements that picked up from the previous themes The information about her members of the family is generalized and summarized that all members of Mrs Hang‘s family are trying to share the household chores to make a special day for her

As a whole, the simple theme and the constant pattern are the most frequently used ones in this text Especially, the most prominent TPP of the text is

contiguous multiple constant pattern Thank to this TPP, information about the housework sharing of Mrs Hang‘s family is progressed and completed

3.2.2 The analysis of text 2

The text focuses on the members of Lam‘s family sharing household chores The TPPs of text 2 are illustrated in figure 4 and the findings of the frequency of TPPs are shown in table 4 below

0

0

1 12.5%

0

0 Total= 62.5% Total= 12.5%

0

0 Total= 25%

Table 4 Frequency of TPPs of text 2

Figure 4 TPPs of text 2

In this second text, there is a total of 15 topical themes analyzed consisting of

3 multiple themes with an additional textual theme and 12 simple themes (80%) There is no interpersonal theme in the text The findings indicate that simple themes take up the most overwhelming majority in the text

From table 4, it can be seen that there are eight thematic progression patterns

in the text including 6 constant patterns, 2 linear patterns and 1 new pattern The

percentages are 62.5 %, 25% and 12.5 % respectively The result reports that the writer tends to use constant (themic) patterns more often than linear ones

The first pattern which is used in this text is a simple contiguous linear one The theme of the first clause is personal pronoun ― I‖, and the rheme is ―my parents,

my younger and I‖ In the following clause, the theme is a personal pronoun ― we‖ Lam wants to tell something about his family Then some background information about the family is described here For the second pattern, it is a multiple contiguous linear TPP The rheme ― all very busy people‖ is separated in the latter themes ― both my parents‖ and ― my sister and I‖ This separation is contiguous as it happened immediately after the mentioning of the elements to be separated The writer uses this patterns to explain why the members are busy Next, the text moves

on with a simple gapped constant pattern The theme ―we‖ is used after a textual theme ―so‖ to give the result that the family split the chores equally The fourth pattern is a simple contiguous constant The theme ―he‖ is repeated immediately after the previous theme ― my dad‖ to give the things the father does in the family For the fifth pattern, it is new because the theme ― my mum‖ is mentioned once The sixth TPP is a simple contiguous constant one The theme ― I‖ of the two clauses is repeated after the previous theme to list the things Lam he does For the seventh pattern, it is a multiple constant pattern The previous theme ― I‖ and ― my younger sister An‘s responsibilities‖ is integrated in the following theme ― my sister and I‖ The writer provides the readers with the housework that Lam and his sister

do separately but also the one that they work together The last pattern of the text is

a simple contiguous constant one The theme ―we‖ is repeated in the clauses to list the information about all the member of the family In this pattern, the reasons why they share the housework are exposed to readers

In general, simple themes and constant TPP are the most frequently used ones in the text to make sure that the organization of the information is short and brief

3.2.3 The analysis of text 3

The text is about Thanh‘s family members who share housework equally for

rest and recreation

The results of TPPs are summarized in table 5 and TPPs are graphically

illustrated in figure 5 as follows:

0

0

1 8.33%

1 16.67%

From the table 5, it can be shown that eleven thematic patterns are identified

in this text and divided into three large groups: constant, linear and other The largest group is constant patterns that make up to 66.66 % followed by linear pattern ( 16.67%) and new patterns(16.67 %)

The first TPP is new because the themes are mentioned for the first time The author uses the theme ―household chores‖ to start the text aiming at emphasize that the topic of the text surrounds household chores The second and the third pattern are simple contiguous constant patterns For the second TPP, the theme ―she‖ that is picked up from the previous theme ―his mother‖ is mentioned in the two following clauses With this pattern, information about what his mother can do and the reasons why she does that is listed clearly For the third TPP, the theme ―he‖ is picked up from the immediately preceding clause to list more information about what his father does The fourth TPP is a simple contiguous linear one The information about the rheme ― the heavy things‖ is described in detail in the immediately following theme The fifth and the sixth patterns are both simple contiguous constant TPPs The information about what Thanh does and what his sister does is listed The text moves on with a simple contiguous linear pattern The theme ― the house‖ is picked up from the previous rheme and put after a textual theme ―so‖ His sister cleans the house carefully, so the information about the house is described here Then the information about what housework Thanh does and what housework his sister does continues to be respectively listed in the simple gapped and contiguous constant thematic progression patterns The most important information lies in the next pattern, a multiple gapped constant one The theme in this clause ― everybody‖ is integrated from the themes of the previous clause ― his mother‖, ― Thanh‘s father‖, Thanh and Thanh‘s sister‖ The integration is gapped because there

is an intervening material before the integration Obviously, as a way of combining all the previous themes into the only theme, the writer wants to emphasize that all the members of Thanh‘s family contribute to the housework The text ends by simple constant pattern with which information about all members is added That is the purpose of the members‘ household sharing for rest and creation

From the analysis above, it can be concluded that simple themes and constant thematic pattern especially multiple gapped TPP play a significant role in