Tài liệu A thematic structure analysis of the essays by 2nd year students at a university in hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ NGUYỄN HOÀI NGÂN A THEMATIC STRUCTURE ANALYSIS OF THE ESSAYS BY 2ND YEAR STUDENTS AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI (Phân tích cấu trúc chủ đề các bài luận của sinh viên năm 2 tại một trường Đại học tại Hà Nội) M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01 Hanoi, 2021 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ NGUYỄN HOÀI NGÂN A THEMATIC STRUCTURE ANALYSIS OF THE ESSAYS BY 2ND YEAR STUDENTS AT A UNIVERSITY IN HANOI (Phân tích cấu trúc chủ đề các bài luận của sinh viên năm 2 tại một trường đại học tại Hà Nội) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Linguistics Code : 8220201.01 Supervisor : Prof. Dr. Hoàng Văn Vân Hanoi, 2021 DECLARATION I hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled “A thematic structure analysis of the essays by 2nd year students at a university in Hanoi” (Phân tích cấu trúc chủ đề của các bài luận của sinh viên năm 2 tại một trường đại học tại Hà Nội) submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Except where states otherwise by reference or acknowledgment, the work presented is the result of my own research. Hanoi, 2021 Lê Nguyễn Hoài Ngân i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Hoang Van Van, for his invaluable guidance to do this research. I would like to thank him for his vision, precious materials, dynamism, sincerity. It was a pleasure and privilege to study and accomplish my thesis under his guidance. I am extremely grateful to Ms. Hoang Thi Hong Hai and Ms. Tran Hoang Anh for their encouragement and enthusiasm in helping me collect data for this study. Finally, I owe the completion of this study to my family and my friends who gave me understanding and encouragement throughout the study. ii ABSTRACT This thesis entitled ―A thematic structure analysis of the essays by 2 nd year students at a university in Hanoi‖ was conducted as a contribution to enhance awareness of applying a wide variety of thematic progression patterns and cohesive tie devices in order that students could master their writing skills. In order to reach the goals of the study and determine answers to the research questions, the researcher used the combination of quantitative and qualitative method. The qualitative method was used in order to give a detailed description of the thematic structure and cohesive ties by 2nd year students‘ essays; their practical applications in writings and problems students experienced. Furthermore, the quantitative method collected from the essays was analyzed. The writing tasks were distributed among 2nd year students. Then, their writing performances were gathered, categorized and analyzed. Writing tasks are given to 2nd year students as tests because they are a reliable and quick method to collect information in an efficient and timely manner. The result of the study indicated that beside using thematic progression patterns (constant thematic progression, linear thematic progression, derived hyper-thematic progression, split rhematic progression), cohesive ties, types of themes in students‘ essays, 2nd year students also encountered some themerheme problems (the problems of the brand-new theme, the over-use of ―There‖ in the theme selection, empty rheme and non-constant progression, themes with unclear reference). iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION .............................................................................................. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................ ii ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, CHARTS AND DIAGRAMS .................. vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................. 1 1.1. Rationale of the Study ................................................................................ 1 1.2. Aims of the Study....................................................................................... 2 1.3. Scope of the Study ..................................................................................... 2 1.4. Methods of the Study ................................................................................. 2 1.5. Significance of the Study ........................................................................... 3 1.6. Design of the Study .................................................................................... 3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................... 5 2.1. Previous Studies ......................................................................................... 5 2.2. Literature Review ....................................................................................... 8 2.2.1. Definitions of Theme and Rheme ........................................................... 8 2.2.2. Experiential, Interpersonal and Textual Theme ...................................... 9 2.2.3. Types of Theme..................................................................................... 11 2.2.4. Thematic Progression Patterns .............................................................. 13 2.2.5. Overview of an Essay............................................................................ 16 2.2.6. Cohesive Ties ........................................................................................ 18 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ....................................... 20 3.1. Research Design ....................................................................................... 20 3.2. Research Methods .................................................................................... 20 3.3. Data Collection......................................................................................... 21 3.3.1. USTH‘ Overview and Education .......................................................... 21 3.3.2. Settings and Participants ....................................................................... 22 iv 3.3.3. Methods of Data Collection .................................................................. 23 3.4. Procedures of Study ................................................................................. 23 3.5. Data Analysis ........................................................................................... 24 3.6. Reliability and Validity ............................................................................ 24 3.7. Summary .................................................................................................. 25 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ......................................... 26 4.1. Findings .................................................................................................... 26 4.1.1. Thematic Progression Patterns of Students‘ Essays ...................................... 26 4.1.2. Cohesive Ties of Students‘ Essays........................................................ 28 4.1.3. The Use of Types of Theme in Students‘ Essays ................................. 30 4.1.4. Theme-Rheme Problems ....................................................................... 32 4.2. Discussion ................................................................................................ 34 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ..................................................................... 41 5.1. Recapitulation .......................................................................................... 41 5.2. Limitations and Suggestion for Further Research ................................... 42 REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 43 APPENDIX ....................................................................................................... I v LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES, CHARTS AND DIAGRAMS Table 2.1. Analysis of experiential Theme ....................................................... 9 Table 2.2. Analysis of unmarked Theme ........................................................ 10 Table 2.3. Analysis of interpersonal Theme ................................................... 10 Table 2.4. Analysis of multiple Theme ........................................................... 12 Table 2.5. Types of writings and organizations .............................................. 17 Table 2.6. Transition words and phrases in English ....................................... 18 Figure 2.1. An example of constant thematic progression ............................. 14 Figure 2.2. An example of linear of ‗zig-zag‘ progression ............................. 14 Figure 2.3. An example of derived hyperthematic progression ...................... 15 Figure 2.4. An example of the split rheme pattern ......................................... 15 Figure 2.5. An example of the split theme progression .................................. 16 Chart 4.1. The use of thematic progression patterns in students' essays ........ 26 Chart 4.2. Distribution of the use of thematic progression patterns ............... 27 in each part of essay ........................................................................................ 27 Chart 4.3. Cohesive ties in students' essays .................................................... 28 Chart 4.4. Transition in students‘ essays......................................................... 29 Chart 4.5. The Use of Experiential, Interpersonal and Textual Theme .......... 30 in Students‘ Essays .......................................................................................... 30 Chart 4.6. The Use of Simple Theme, Multiple Theme and Clausal Theme in Students' Essays .............................................................................................. 31 Diagram 4.1. Thematic progression of students‘ essays 1 .............................. 35 Diagram 4.2. Thematic progression of students‘ essays 2 .............................. 36 Diagram 4.3. Thematic progression of students‘ essays 3 .............................. 37 Diagram 4.4. Thematic progression of students‘ essays 4 .............................. 37 Diagram 4.5. Thematic progression of students‘ essays 5 .............................. 38 Diagram 4.6. Thematic progression of students‘ essays 6 .............................. 38 Diagram 4.7. Thematic progression of students‘ essays 7 .............................. 39 vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale of the Study Writing is an important skill for language learners not only at school but also for their future job. Writing skills provides students with a lot of chances to compose ideas, organize their thoughts and arguments, support key points and share information in an effective way. It is the fact that making mistakes related to thematic structure in essays is more and more common in students‘ essays. Therefore, the awareness of the thematic structure as well as the functional grammar will also prepare students for their future academic and professional endeavors. As a result, it helps students find ideal jobs because in the area of technology and information writers are required to master writing for marketing campaigns, for making documents, records, contracts, etc… However, most Vietnamese students have major difficulties in conveying their ideas into words, connecting them by effective glues and creating persuasive writing essays or compositions. Being aware of these challenges, I engage in a study in English and Vietnamese essays in terms of theme-rheme patterns to have a clear look into their effects on theme-rheme. This will help students master how essays are written in the right way in term of theme-rheme patterns or thematic progression. For these reasons, with a view to providing Vietnamese learners of English with the awareness of thematic structure in writing essays so that learners can better understand and make better use of thematic structure in writing more and more successfully, I have decided to work on “A thematic structure analysis of the essays by 2nd year students at a university in Hanoi‖ as the topic of my research paper. 1 1.2. Aims of the Study The aim of this study is to use theme-rheme analysis framework to explore how the essays written by the 2nd year students organized and developed in terms of the theme-rheme patterns, cohesive ties and theme-rheme students‘ problems. To realize this aim, the following two questions are raised for exploration: 1. How are the texts (students‘ essays) organized and developed in terms of theme-rheme patterns by the 2nd year students? 2. How are the different cohesive ties of contexts hung together to make the texts cohesive? 3. What problems do students experience when writing essays in terms of theme-rheme patterns? To answer these questions, I will first review some fundamental concepts relevant to the study: the definitions of theme and rheme, types of theme and rheme, thematic progression patterns, overview of an essay, the importance of coherence of an essay and cohesion ties. 1.3. Scope of the Study Writing skill seems to be a big challenge for students of English as a foreign. Therefore, this study wishes to help students improve their writing skill. However, given the scope, this study is confined to investigating only the theme-rheme patterns in essays written by 2nd year students at the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi. 1.4. Methods of the Study The study employs both qualitative and quantitative methods. The former is concerned with the description of the main aspects of theme-rheme patterns, cohesive ties and other textual aspects; and the latter deals with the analysis of the essays written by the students in terms of theme-rheme patterns, cohesive ties, and then turn it into quantifiable data for discussion. 2 1.5. Significance of the Study The significance of the study lied in its focus on exploring how the essays written by the 2nd year students organized and developed in terms of the theme-rheme patterns, cohesive ties and theme-rheme students‘ problems. On the basis of the findings of this study, researcher hopes that English teachers can design the suitable content for students‘ writing tasks in great effort to support students to write different types of academic essay patterns and master key academic writing skills. 1.6. Design of the Study The thesis is presented in five chapters: Chapter 1 – Introduction – presents general issues of the study such as the reasons for choosing this topic, aims of the study including research questions, scope of the study, methods of the study and design of the study. Chapter 2 – Literature Review – provides an overview of related studies and establishes the framework employed as the basis for arguments and analysis of the data in the study. The chapter attempts to define key terms such as theme-rheme definition, thematic analysis, Halliday‘s theory of theme-rheme, types of theme, thematic progression, overview of an essay and cohesive ties. Chapter 3 – Research Methodology – is concerned with research design and data collection. This chapter demonstrates the setting, the participants, and the method of collecting data as well as the process of analyzing data in particular and the procedures for conducting the research in general. Chapter 4 – Findings and Discussion – answers the research questions. 3 Chapter 5 – Conclusion – summarizes what has been studied in answering to the research questions, points out some limitations of the research and make suggestion for further research. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter is concerned with literature review of the minor thesis. It will first provide an overview of related studies. Then it will discuss about the definition of theme and rheme, thematic analysis, Halliday‘s theory of theme-rheme, types of theme, thematic progression patterns, cohesive ties and overview of an essay. 2.1. Previous Studies There has been a consensus that instruction in thematic structure should be included in teaching of English (Alonso & McCabe, 2003; Bohnacker, 2010; Cheng, 2002; Christie & Dreyfus, 2007; Hawe & Thomas, 2012; Ventola, 1994; Wang, 2007). Ventola (1994), for example, advocated that courses for academic writing in a foreign language should develop learners‘ consciousness and linguistic skills in organizing information in texts in a way which was referentially and thematically cohesive. Similarly, Cheng (2002), in his study discussing how the problems with thematic progression would compromise coherence in Chinese college students‘ writing, proposed that the theory of theme and thematic progression should be included in English teaching to Chinese students. Emphasizing the importance of theme-rheme structures in essay writing, Alonso and McCabe (2003), pointed out that English learners of English as a second/foreign language often wrote essays that consisted of sentences which did not seem to connect into a cohesive text. They recommended that more attention should be paid to the progression of information in texts in addition to focus on cohesive devices. Wang (2007) claimed that the theory of theme and thematic progression was a valuable tool for teachers to diagnose writing difficulties and students should be taught how to arrange old and new information to help improve cohesion and coherence in their writing. Christie and Dreyfus (2007) advocated 5 a genre-based approach to teaching deconstructing genre models for theme and thematic progression likely to monitor for differences concerning the interaction of information structure and word order, as they were probably not even aware that Swedish differed from German in this regard. Hawe and Thomas (2012) proposed that ―there is a need for coaching in thematisation ... teaching at least rudimentary thematisation theory and giving students practice with an assortment of thematic options... based on our students‘ apparent inadequate familiarity with English information structure‖ (p.182). In contrast, however, there have not been a lot of investigations regarding how teachers could apply the theory of theme and thematic progression (Wang, 2007), or studies that have developed and studied teaching materials informed by theme and thematic progression (Bonhnacker, 2010). Cheng (2008) provided a genre-based pedagogy on EFL students‘ writing development by incorporating ―analyzing thematic choices‖ as part of the three-stage EFL composition course in Taiwan for college freshmen‘s narrative writing course, where stage three focused students on analyzing lexical-grammatical features associated with English narrative writing, intending to help the students understand how the situational context was constructed through linguistic features, which included type of verbs, use of appraisal terms, syntactic features, thematic choices and cohesive ties. Ho (2009) tried helping students understand the macro and micro elements following analysis of theme and thematic progression in a text. The research subject is a second-year student pursuing an English medium science degree at the university. She was first asked to read a science article of her choice from the different sources (for e.g., journals and books), and then asked to write a review of the article. The completed written text was collected by the instructor. Over the next two weeks, the student was presented with a number of model review texts under the review genre. Using 6 the whole text SFG (Systemic Functional Grammar)-based approach, instruction consisted of joint instructor-student analysis of the obligatory and optional sequence of stages found in a review text, the types of clauses and their patterns of thematic progression. The instruction is aimed at raising the student‘s awareness of the generic identity of the review text, its clause structure and thematic development. Mello (2011) presented classroom activities that introduced students to the grammar of theme and thematic progression in order to improve the coherence of their writing, with a model of Theme-Rheme analytical framework in academic writing curriculum. Comprised of five sections, i.e., Introduction to Theme/Rheme, Analysis of authentic and model texts, Introduction to thematic patterns, Analysis of theme and thematic progression in student texts, and Application to the students‘ writing, the lessons were intended for an undergraduate ESL academic reading and writing course and with adaptation, could be used for other levels and contexts. Cheng (2008)‘s genre-based pedagogy included ―analyzing thematic choice‖ as part of a three-stage EFL composition course, Ho (2009) implemented his instruction in theme and thematic progression with one participant, Mellos developed a comparatively complete but brief Theme-Rheme analytical framework in academic writing curriculum comprising of five sessions for ESL students. The present research, however, intends to develop a more complete and detailed instructional package in theme and thematic progression for Vietnamese EFL students by examining theories in Systemic Functional Grammar and reviewing relevant literature. Within this academic domain, there has been no prior study into the thematic structure and cohesive ties in writing essays experienced by 2 nd year students at the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi. Therefore, this study is intended to raise awareness of the thematic structure and cohesive ties on writing essays and provide students of English as a foreign 7 language a better insight into the use of thematic structure and thematic progression. 2.2. Literature Review 2.2.1. Definitions of Theme and Rheme The Theme is defined by Halliday as ―the point of departure for the message ... the element the speaker selects for ‗grounding‘‖ (2014, p. 83). It is ―the peg on which the message is hung‖ and can be recognized by the fact that it ―is put in the first position‖ (Halliday, 1970, p. 161). The Theme orients the listener/reader to the message that is about to be perceived and provides a framework for the interpretation of the message. The Theme typically contains familiar, old or given information, which has already been mentioned somewhere in the text, or it is shared or mutual knowledge from the immediate context. The Theme is followed by the Rheme, ―the remainder of the message, the part in which the Theme is developed‖ (Halliday, 2004, p. 64). The Rheme is the remainder of the message in a clause in which the Theme is developed, which means the Rheme typically contains unfamiliar or new information. As a message structure, a clause consists of a Theme accompanied by a Rheme and the structure is expressed by the order— whatever is chosen as the Theme is put first (Halliday, 2004, p. 65). The Theme extends from the beginning of a clause up to (and including) the first element that has a function in transitivity. This means that the Theme of a clause ends with the first constituent that is participant, circumstance, or process, which is referred to as the topical Theme. The topical Theme may be preceded by elements which are textual and/or interpersonal in function, and they are called textual Theme and interpersonal Theme respectively in SFG. This typology of Themes into topical, textual and interpersonal Themes is made in terms of textual metafunction. 8 2.2.2. Experiential, Interpersonal and Textual Theme According to the thematic content and what function it performs, theme can be divided into three categories, they are experiential, interpersonal and textual Theme. (1) Experiential/Topical Theme According to Halliday (1985, 1994), experiential Theme represents human experience, inner world, conceptions mostly obtained by people from the outside world. The topical or experiential element in a multiple theme is the obligatory constituent, a representative of experiential elements a transitivity part involves. In a sentence, experiential Theme invariably occurs in the initial position followed by Rheme, it can be the participants, temporal adjuncts or adverbials, etc. In functional terminology, it can be Actor—the subject of a material process, or Circumstance which is realized mostly by the adverbial or prepositional phrase in all different process, or Senser—subject or object of a mental process. Examples are provided in Table 1 below. Table 2.1. Analysis of experiential Theme He On the university campus I Theme chased three squirrels just now. they dance every evening. hate telling you the truth. Rheme (Adapted from Junying, 2016) Theme can be further divided into marked and unmarked Theme. If Theme element conflates with the Subject of the clause, it is unmarked Theme. Otherwise, it is marked Theme. The unmarked Theme is realized by (i) the Subject of the declarative clause, (ii) the finite verbal operator plus Subject in the yes/no question, (iii) Wh-word or group in wh-question, (iv) the thematic equative, and (v) the initial element in the imperative clause and the exclamatory clause as illustrated in Table 2 below. 9 Table 2.2. Analysis of unmarked Theme Mary Do you What topic What you need to do How beautiful Unmarked Theme is a top student. like English? did you choose? is to make a response. the girl is! Rheme (Adapted from Junying, 2016) (2) Interpersonal Theme By interpersonal, it is meant interaction between writers and readers. Interpersonal Theme is composed of vocative, modal and mood-making elements (Halliday, 2000). A vocative is an item used to address, it may appear in any position of the clause and is thematic if it appears before topical Theme. A modal adjunct like surprisingly, frankly. etc. becomes a modal Theme when it occurs before the topical Theme. Such modal adjuncts convey to readers the speakers‘ judgment of the relevance or truth value of their message. They can be regarded as the comment on the message rather than the content itself (Thompson, 2000, p. 134-135). Finite verbal operator like would, can, should, etc. also serves as the interpersonal Theme. Examples are provided in Table 3 below. Table 2.3. Analysis of interpersonal Theme Unfortunately Would Mary, Mary won‘t Interpersonal Theme the doctor you you Experiential Theme hasn‘t left an address. like the teapot? marry me? Rheme (Adapted from Junying, 2016) (3) Textual Theme Textual theme is used to arrange information in a certain order. There are three types: continuative, conjunctive and structural Theme. Continuatives 10 refer to the discourse markers such as yes, no, well, oh, now, etc. which signal the beginning of a new move in the exchange, if more than one textual element is present, they occur in the order of continuative, conjunction, conjunctive, for example, ‗Well but on the other hand…‘ (Thompson, 2000, p.136). Conjunctions such as and, but, obviously work primarily between two or more clauses, join two clauses into one sentence and indicate the types of semantic relationships. Conjunctive adjuncts do not link the clause into a larger structural unit, but link the content of the clause to that of other clauses without forming part of the content, and show how two sentences relate to each other through the use of alternatively, as a result, etc., they relate the clause to the preceding text, signal how the clause as a whole fit in with the preceding text. 2.2.3. Types of Theme In terms of types, Theme can be classified into simple Theme, multiple Theme and clausal Theme. (1) Simple Theme Simple theme is ―the Theme of a clause that is composed of only one structural element and it is realized usually by only one element—one nominal, prepositional or adverbial component‖ (Halliday, 1994, p. 39). It is an independent unit which can no longer be further divided into smaller functional unit. For example: My brother (T) | has been assigned that task by the teacher. Very carefully (T) | she put him back on his feet again. On weekend days (T) | I go back home from school. (2) Multiple Theme Multiple Theme is the Theme that consists of topical Theme together with anything else that comes before it (Halliday, 1994, p. 53). According to its semantic constituents, multiple Theme can be further divided into three 11 types of Themes, namely, the experiential, interpersonal, and textual Theme. In a multiple Theme, the Theme of the clause ends with the first constituent that is participant, circumstance, process and it extends from the beginning of the clause up to the first element that has a function in transitivity, which means that the last constituent in a multiple Theme has to be an experiential or topical Theme. The element that comes before the topical Theme can vary from elements which are textual and /or interpersonal in function. An example is provided in Table 4 below. Table 2.4. Analysis of multiple Theme Not surprisingly, Then, its operation were viewed with admiration. interpersonal textual experiential Theme (Adapted from Thompson, 2000:137) (3) Clausal Theme Clausal Theme, as the term indicates, means a clause serves as the Theme. Halliday (1985, 1994) defines thematic structure largely for the clause, but makes it clear that other units like clause complex also has thematic structures. A clause complex is a combination of clauses linked together by conjunctions that indicate the logical relationships between clauses. Clause-complex can be classified into two types: paratactic clausecomplex and hypotactic clause-complex. If a clause-complex is a combination of two or more equal clauses, it is a paratactic clause-complex. If the combination is made up of clauses with unequal status, it is a hypotactic clause-complex. In the clause-complex, the clause that takes the initial position in the clause complex is given the Theme status, and at the same time Halliday (1994) states that there will still be a thematic structure in each of all 12