(LUẬN văn THẠC sĩ) thematic progression in reading texts of the textbook tiếng anh 10, book 1 a systemic functional analysis

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 tiến triển đề ngữ đọc sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 10, tập theo đường hướng chức hệ thống M.A THESIS FIELD CODE : ENGLISH LINGUISTICS : 8220201.01 Hanoi, 2018 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 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 tiến triển đề ngữ đọc sách giáo khoa Tiếng Anh 10, tập theo đường hướng chức hệ thống M.A THESIS FIELD CODE SUPERVISOR : ENGLISH LINGUISTICS : 8220201.01 : Dr Nguyen Thi Minh Tam Hanoi, 2018 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 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:…………………… i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere thankfulness to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Thi Minh Tam for his persistent consideration, enthusiastic encouragement and invaluable supervision throughout my process of writing this thesis 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 ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 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 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 iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 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 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES vii PART INTRODUCTION .1 Rationale of the study Significance of Research Research aims and objectives .2 Research questions Methods of the study .3 Scope of the study Design of the Study PART DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE REVIEW.5 1.1 The system of theme 1.1.1 Theme and rheme 1.1.2 Types of themes 1.2 Thematic progression 1.2 Definition of thematic progression 1.2.2 Thematic progression patterns 1.3 Previous studies 12 1.4 Summary 13 CHAPTER 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 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 2.6 Summary 17 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 19 3.1 General findings 19 3.2 Textual analysis 20 3.2.1 The analysis of text .20 3.2.2 The analysis of text .22 3.2.3 The analysis of text .23 3.2.4 The analysis of text 26 3.2.5 The analysis of text .28 3.2.6 The analysis of text .29 3.2.7 The analysis of text .31 3.2.8 The analysis of text .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 49 3.3.2 Answer to research question 52 3 Summary 53 PART CONCLUSION 55 Summary of the study 55 Implications 56 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 vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure 1: Examples of theme types .7 Figure Thematic progression patterns used in this study 15 Table Theme selection in the corpus .19 Table Thematic progression patterns in the corpus 19 Table Frequency of TPPs of text 21 Figure TPPs of text 20 Table Frequency of TPPs of text 22 Figure TPPs of text 22 Table Frequency of TPPs of Text 24 Figure TPPs of text 24 Table Frequency of TPPs of text 26 Figure TPPs of text 26 Table Frequency of TPPs of Text 28 Figure TPPs of Text 28 Table Frequency of TPPs of Text 29 Figure TPPs of Text 29 Table Frequency of TP patterns of Text 31 Figure TPPs of Text 31 Table 10 Frequency of TPPs of Text 33 Figure 10 TPPs of Text 33 Table 11 Frequency of TPPs of Text 35 Figure 11 TPPs of Text 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 vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 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 viii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com animals and plants‖ is picked up from the previous rheme ―often use natural world as inspiration for their inventions‖ People use natural world for their inventions, so background information about nature is described here For the second pattern, the writer uses an expletive ― here‖ which has no semantic content The content lies on the rheme of the clause " some examples" The third pattern is a multiple gapped linear TPP The separation originates in the previous rheme ―can many things humans cannot like flying or staying underwater for a long time‖ This rheme is separated into two following themes ― the aeroplane, with its wings and shape imitating those of a bird‖ and ― the submarine, which can travel under water‖ This separation is gapped because it didn‘t happen immediately after the mentioning of the elements to be separated It is intervened by a simple contiguous constant pattern in which information about the benefits of the aeroplane is listed Moreover, text readers also catch more information about usefulness of the submarine in the fifth pattern, which is also a simple contiguous constant pattern Similarly, the next TPP is a contiguous multiple linear pattern The themes ―the self-cleaning glass window and the fabric used to make umbrellas‖ and ―another product‖ are separated from the previous rheme ―great sources of ideas for other wonderful inventions‖ The separation is contiguous because it occurred after the immediately preceding rheme In this TPP, information about the inventions inspired from plants are mentioned by splitting the previous rheme The next TPP of the text is a simple contiguous linear one The information provided in the rheme ― Velcro‖ is well developed in the theme of the next clause ―this hook-and-loop faster‖ Thanks to this TPP, readers are given information about Velcro clearly The eight TPP is a simple contiguous constant one The writer lists the information about the inventor who is a Swiss engineer Thus, what he observed and what he did after that are mentioned here For the ninth pattern, it is a simple gapped constant TPP The writer uses the theme ―Velcro‖ again so that readers can know more about these inventions In the next pattern, the topical theme ― nature‖ is formed from conjoining the two previous theme ―plants‖ and ―animals‖ The writer wants to generalize the main content of the text The last pattern is new because the theme ― scientists and inventors‖ is mentioned for the first time in the text 46 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Based on the qualitative analysis above, it can be concluded that the most dominant theme and TPP are simple theme and multiple linear pattern It is appropriate for the type of the text, which is expository The information about the specific inventions is described more clearly from the previous rheme to be separated 3.2.15 The analysis of text 15 The text tells some important inventions from three Asian countries including Japan, China, and Thailand The TPPs of the text are illustrated in figure 17, and the findings of TPPs are counted in table 17 as follows: Constant (themic) Simple Other Multiple: Int Cont Gap Cont Gap New Synt 0 25% 12.5% 0 12.5% Total= 37.5% Total= 12.5% Linear (rhemic) Simple Multiple: Sep Cont Gap Cont Gap 0 25% 0 25% Total= 50% Table 17 Frequency of TPPs of text 15 Figure 17 TPPs of text 15 47 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com In the text, a total of 17 themes analyzed include 12 simple themes (70.59%) and multiple themes with an additional textual theme (29.41%) In the text, there is no interpersonal theme The findings indicate that the characteristics of the text is very brief and direct With limited time and energy, readers often grasp the key point of the message and neglect the redundant information The results of TPPs are summarized in table 17 There are TPPs identified in the text including linear patterns (50%), constant patterns ( 37.5 %) , and other TPP (12.5 %) As for linear TPPs, the simple linear and multiple linear ones are equally used For the first TPP, it is a multiple gapped linear one (separation) The separation originates in the previous rhemes which contain three elements including the Chinese, the Japanese, and the Thai This separation is rhemic and gapped since there is intervening materials With this TPP, information about inventions from three countries is listed The second TPP is a multiple contiguous constant one The integration is the sum of previous themes The theme ― agriculture‖ is conjoined with the theme ― pollution‖ to form the theme of the following clause ― that‖ The integration happened immediately after the mentioning of the elements to be integrated so it is contiguous For the third TPP, the theme ― below‖ belong to the syntactic type In this situation, it can be understood that the topic of the clause is three inventions from a Thai inventor, King The fourth TPP is a multiple gapped linear one The rheme ―three significant inventions from a well respected Thai inventor, King Bhumibol Adulyadej‖ is separated in the three following themes ―Chaipattana Aerator‖, ―he‖ and ―biodiesel oil project‖ This separation is rhemic and gapped since it did not occur after the immediately preceding rheme It is intervened by the fifth,the sixth, and the seventh patterns For the fifth pattern, it is simple contiguous constant The first clause starts with the theme ― the King‘s Chaipattana Aerator‖ and it is followed by the theme ―this‖ in the two following clause The writers use a demonstrative pronoun to mention the topical theme of the first clause The information is listed and stretched around one central topic about 48 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com the technique For the sixth pattern, it is a simple contiguous linear pattern The theme of the first clause is ―This‖ and the rheme is ― wastewater to clean it‖ In the following clause, the theme is ―it‖ (wastewater) The author introduces the machine which has a positive effect on wastewater Thus, wastewater which is reused for farming is described here For the seventh pattern, it is a simple contiguous linear pattern The theme of the first clause is ― he‖ and the rheme is ―Thai patents for his rain-making techniques‖ In the following clause, the theme is ― these techniques‖ The King obtained these rain-making techniques, so the techniques are described more clearly latter The last TPP of the text is a simple contiguous constant one The theme ― its aims‖ and ― Biodiesel‖ are picked up from the previous theme ― the Kings‘ biodiesel oil project‖ Accordingly, information about this invention is listed clearly From the qualitative analysis above, it can be jumped to conclusion that simple themes and multiple linear TPP are the most dominant ones in this text This TPP is the best choice for an expository text Thanks to it, all the information about the inventions from the Chinese, the Japanese and the Thai are well developed from the previous rheme 3.3 Discussion 3.3.1 Answer to research question The findings above indicate that the topical theme and simple theme take up the overwhelming majority of the texts As such, topical themes can be considered as obligatory themes, textual themes can be called conventional and interpersonal themes can be called optional All the texts analyzed have textual theme which outnumbers the interpersonal theme Needless to say, the high occurrence of textual theme attests to the nature of the texts Furthermore, the result also indicates that simple themes are used more often than multiple theme The reason why the writer uses more simple themes is that he wants to provide brief and key information for text readers From that, they can easily catch the core content of the text as quickly as possible 49 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com The results of the TP analysis are presented into large group: constant, linear and other In general, writers tend to use constant (themic) more often than linear( rhemic) thematic progression pattern As for constant patterns, simple patterns are more frequent than multiple ones, and contiguous patterns are more regularly used than gapped ones This is the same as for linear patterns The highest percentage of simple constant theme found in the text could possibly indicate the ―techniques of simple explanation and description‖ in writing strategy (Abed, 2010 p 91) Moreover, it seems that by using greater constant progression, the writer wants to ―hammer their audiences over and over with the same word or phrase‖ (Hawes & Thomas, 1996, p 165) Furthermore, as most of the texts in textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book belong to narrative type It tells a story about a person or an event, so undeniably the most dominant thematic progression pattern is constant simple pattern that here functions as a skeleton of the plot, and every time the clause starts with the same theme, it adds a layer of new information to it This pattern is also the most typical thematic progression used not only in the introduction but also in the conclusion of the texts The reason why writers have a tendency to use simple and multiple constant thematic progression is that the writers want to introduce the topic and list some information about it and then summarize and restate the information about the main topic in order that text readers can have a macro understanding of the main procedures of the events or stories However, overusing this type of progression may lead to the lack of deep explanation of the ideas introduced as the writer does not expand the information contained in the rheme (Belmonte & McCabe-Hidalgo, 1998, p 22), so a combination of other thematic progression patterns is recommended The second highest TP pattern found in the texts is linear theme which Danes (1974), cited in McCabe (1999) is the most elementary or basic type of thematic progression In order to be considered as an academic text, a text is necessarily structured by simple linear theme In relation to this, Eggins (2004, cited in Abed 2010, p 80) asserts that it is necessary that an academic text have ―a high incidence 50 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com of cross-referential links from the Rheme of one clause to the Theme of the next clause.‖ As Li& Fan, (2008) stated that linear thematic progression ensures the fluency for describing things Moreover, Belmonte and McCabe-Hidalgo (1998) also argue that this type of progression is one of the characteristics of expositional and argumentative texts Some texts in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book closely related to how one exposes and explains an issue or argues for/against a thing, it can be asserted that the commonest type of theme used is simple theme and the commonest type of thematic progression is linear pattern that includes simple linear and multiple linear ones These not deviate from what has been formulated by previous researchers - that topical theme is an obligatory (Ho, 2011), and that simple linear theme is the most basic type of thematic progression (Danes , 1974, cited in McCabe, 1999) However, in some expository and argumentative texts in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book such as text 10, constant pattern is also used as the most dominant thematic progression It can be said that the writer develops information in a new way that is totally different from previous researchers, but he still makes sure that the information of the text is well-developed and text readers can have full understanding of his arguments In addition, it should be noted that the pattern of the type of a text is culturebound It differs across cultures Native writers of English, for instance, may compose less or even no unrelated themes within paragraphs or texts than Vietnamese natives in time of writing English texts This may be because logic which is the basis of argumentation is ―evolved out of culture‖ (Kaplan, 1966) Therefore, the pattern of thematic progression found in the texts of the textbook Tiếng Anh 10,book is distinct from the pattern of thematic progression of texts in other cultures The least frequently used thematic progression pattern belong to other group that is categorized into new and syntactic types that was found most in advice-giving letter From the analysis, the most frequently used theme and thematic progression pattern in the text are process theme and new pattern The reason is that the writer want to give advice to letter writer, so different instructions or steps might be provided 51 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com 3.3.2 Answer to research question The results above show the relations between the thematic progression patterns and the topics of the texts From the analysis, multiple constant thematic progression pattern is the most dominant one in the texts of the topic of family Because the content of the texts is about family life, the information about what each member does in the family is listed in the texts at first, and then what all the family members together is mentioned Therefore, the theme is formed by the previous themes to be integrated to generalize the information of the whole text For the texts about community ,music, and health, the most typical thematic progression is simple constant pattern For the topic of community, the contents of three texts are about volunteer work, Mahatma Gandhi who fought for the rights of the poor and women In India and Tilly Smith who warned the tsunami to save many people in Maikhao beach, Thailand All the themes in these texts focus on the core content They are around the main character of the story For the topic of music, among three texts, two texts which are about Quan Ho singing, and Thu Anh, a girl who conquers the voice contain more simple constant TPP With the topic of health, the texts that are medical treatment, acupuncture and advice giving on health have more constant simple Concerning with topic of inventions and technologies, such as inventions from Asian countries and inventions inspired form nature, the most frequently used thematic progression pattern is multiple linear one, which is called split-rheme or multiple-rheme pattern Indeed, the rheme is split and described clearly and in detail in the following two or three themes Furthermore, the findings indicate that simple constant thematic pattern is used the most in narrative texts whereas multiple linear pattern is the most dominant one in expository and argumentative texts However, writers sometimes use simple constant thematic pattern as the most dominant one in some expository and argumentative texts In letters, there are different ways of developing themes For example, in advice-giving letter, the simple constant thematic pattern is the most 52 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com dominant whereas in advice-giving letters, new thematic pattern is used more often than others The reason that new themes are preferred is that the writer wants to give different suggestions and instructions for that issue Thus, new themes which are present verbs are used in order that readers can easily follow them In conclusion, it can be undeniable that which thematic progression pattern is the most frequently used one in the text depending on topics of text and text types 3 Summary This chapter presents the findings of quantitative and qualitative data analyses The main findings are the answers for two research questions of the study (i.e realization of thematic progression and relations between thematic progression patterns and the topics of the reading texts ) Firstly, the most dominant theme type is topical theme followed by textual theme in the second place and interpersonal theme in the last position The results also indicate that simple theme take up the overwhelming majority in the reading texts Secondly, writers in the texts tend to use constant (themic) more frequently than linear (rhemic) thematic progression patterns As for both types of thematic progression patterns, simple and contiguous patterns are used more often than multiple and gapped ones respectively Thirdly, the preference of using thematic progression patterns depends on texts genres and topics of the texts Particularly, the multiple constant patter is the most dominant in topic of family whereas the simple constant pattern take up the overwhelming majority in the texts of community, health and music The multiple linear is used more often in the texts of technologies and inventions In terms of text genres, simple constant is the most dominant thematic progres sion pattern in narrative text while multiple linear is the most dominant one in expository and argumentative texts In advice-giving letter, the writer prefer to use new and process theme 53 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com To sum up, in this chapter, data collected from the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book were analyzed From data analysis, the findings which are also the answers for two research questions were revealed and discussed Based on these findings, some implications for the English learning and teaching will be given in the next chapter 54 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART CONCLUSION Summary of the study In this minor thesis, the researcher aims at exploring thematic progression of reading texts in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book From the above objectives, the researcher would like to give implications to how the information of the texts is well-developed Based on these aims of the study, two research questions were addressed: What is the realization of Thematic Progression in the reading texts in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book 1? What are the possible relations between thematic progression patterns and the topics of the reading texts? To answer the two research questions, the study employed a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative approach 15 non-conversational reading texts from units in the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book were analyzed The analytical framework adapted from Dubois (1987) which included constant, linear and multiple realizations of all the contiguous and gapped types was used as a tool for data analysis From that, some findings can be summarized Firstly, the simple theme is used more than the multiple theme, which is related to the characteristics of reading texts to be brief and direct With limited time and energy, readers often grasp the key point of the news, and neglect the redundant information Along with the fact that topical theme can be considered as obligatory themes, all of the texts analyzed have textual theme which outnumbers the interpersonal theme Textual themes are usually adjuncts that act as marked themes, such as the adjunct of time, place, condition, etc Writers tend to put this kind of information in the initial position, because they are important information about events and facts which can catch the readers' eyes as quickly as possible Secondly, for the thematic progression patterns, although all these patterns play an essential role in textual cohesion and textual coherence, the most frequently 55 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com used pattern is constant pattern followed by the linear pattern More specially, simple thematic progression is more frequently used than multiple one and contiguous constant thematic progression is more common than gapped one Constant pattern has an obvious function as laying a framework for information to center on the core content, which makes reading texts clearer and more effective The linear pattern can provide large amounts of information Rhemes in the preceding clauses become themes in the following clauses and will be stretched In this way, themes and rhemes move forward Readers can follow writers‘ logic and have a clear train of thought about the topic Lastly, the analysis can testify the supposition of Fires that there are some inner relations between thematic structure, thematic progression and genres, and different genres have their preferred theme structures and thematic progression In particular, in narrative stories, writers tend to use simple constant pattern the most whereas in expository and argumentative writings, multiple linear pattern is the most dominant one In letters, the most frequently used thematic progression pattern may be simple constant or new Furthermore, for different topics of the texts, the most dominant TPP is different as well Based on the aforementioned findings, the researcher has provided some recommendations with the hope of improving teaching and learning English writing especially in English curriculum at tertiary schools The implications include raising the awareness of TPPs of both teachers and students, teaching students how to use TPPs, designing texts and activities for students to practice TPPs in class and adapting the testing and assessment system to test students‘ abilities to use TPPs Implications The study of thematic progression in the reading texts of the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book carried out in this work may be of some use for writers of texts, teachers and learners who use English as a foreign language, grammarians, linguists and researchers who are working with functional grammar, and those who are interested in the study of reading texts of the English textbook 56 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Firstly, users of English including writers of reading texts, teachers and learners would know how to analyze them functionally or thematically to use them most effectively in writings or texts Secondly, our findings provide TPPs as well as distribution of Theme in the reading texts which aim at helping the teachers a lot in giving students some tips in making smooth and logic writings Based on the findings of the study, the teachers might explain the organization of the texts of the textbook for students to understand and help students to produce a smooht and logic writing Thirdly, to Vietnamese learners of English, their writing skill in general and compositions in particular are problematic One of the main reasons is that they have little knowledge of theme-rheme structure and thematic progression In mastering theme-rheme structure and thematic progression patterns, Vietnamese students will have a better insight into making a smooth and logic text, and then apply advanced linguistic features to yield a successful compositions Moreover, learners of English can also find this research paper some different approaches to grammar Those who find English sentence structure analysis in formal grammar problematic can turn to their thematic analysis and see that it is much easier for English to be considered a Theme-inclined language Lastly, grammarians, linguists and researchers who are working with functional grammar can find in this work some materials for their works It is hoped that this thesis can make some contribution to the research on the semantic aspects of the thematic structure or inspire others to go further in this difficult but interesting study of the reading texts of the English textbooks Limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies 3.1 Limitations of the study Although the research has obtained its objectives, it bears some limitations as follows: Owing to a limited time and source of materials relating to the problem under investigation, there are some unavoidable weaknesses in this study This topic 57 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com interests us for a long time However, because of the constraint of time, the study was focused on the "surface" thematic structure of each clause in the 15 reading texts of the textbook Tiếng Anh 10, book Therefore, to some extent, the results may not be generalized for the whole non-conversational texts in the textbook Furthermore, the semantic and pragmatic aspects of thematic structure as well as the thematic progression of the same samples have not been deeply studied yet 3.2 Suggestions for further studies As we have claimed many times in this work, there should have more research done in many other fields relating to thematic progression in general and that of reading texts of the English textbook in particular First of all, the classification of themes into marked and unmarked types for the writer‘s intention to emphasize or draw readers‘ attention needs further investigation Secondly, further studies on the semantic aspects of the thematic structure are needed besides the semantic roles of and the semantic relations between theme and rheme in English clause as well as in reading texts Last but not least, the cultural aspects of both thematic structure and thematic progression of the reading texts in English and Vietnamese are worthy of investigation in great details 58 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com REFERENCES Abed, A Q (2010) Patterns of thematic progression in C Dickens‘ A Tale of Two Cities Al-Adab, 92, 77-101 Alonso Belmonte, I., & A McCabe-Hidalgo (1998) Theme-Rheme Patterns in L2 Writing Didáctica (Lengua y Literatura) , 10: 13-31 Bloor, T & Bloor, M (1995) The Functional Analysis of English: A Hallidayan Approach London: Arnold Danes, F (1970) On linguistic analysis of text structure Folia Linguistics, 4, 728.http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/flin.1970.4.1-2.72 Danes, F (1974) Functional sentence perspective and the organization of the text Papers on Functional Sentence Perspective Prague: Academia 106-128 Dubois, B (1987) A reformulation of thematic progression typology Text 7.2: 9116 Eggins, S (2004) An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics New York: Continuum Emilia, E (2014) Introducing Functional Grammar Bandung: DuniaPustaka Jaya Fries, P H (1995) A personal view of Theme In M Ghadessy (ed.) Thematic development in English texts London: Pinter 1-19 Halliday, M.A.K (1994 [1985]) An introduction to functional grammar London: Arnold (2nd edition) Halliday,M.A.K and Matthiessen, C.M.I.M.(2004) An Introduction to Functional Grammar London: Hodder Education Ho, V L (2011) Non-native argumentative writing by Vietnamese learners of English: A contrastive study Unpublished PhD Dissertation, Georgetown University dissertation, Georgetown, USA Hu, Z., Zhu, Y S., Zhang, D L., & Li, Z Z (2005) Introduction of SystemicFunctional Grammar Beijing: Peking University Press 59 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Jing, W (2014) Theme and thematic progression in learner English: A literature review Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal, 16(1) 67-80 Kaplan, R B (1966) Cultural thought patterns in inter-cultural education Language Learning, 16(1-2), 11-25 Lan, L M (2008) Thematic Progression and Cohesive Devices: An Approach to English Reading Unpublished master‘s thesis, National Chengchi Univerisity, Taipei city, Taiwan Li, J & Fan, X T (2008) Application of Patterns of Thematic Progression to Literary Text Analysis Journal of Dalian University, 29(4), 59-62 McCabe, A (1999) Theme and Thematic Patterns in Spanish and English History Text (Unpublished doctoral dissertation) Aston University, Aston Paltridge, B (2006) Discourse analysis London: Continuum Rørvik, S (2012) Thematic progression in learner language In S Hoffmann, P Rayson, & G Leech (Eds.) English corpus linguistics: Looking back, moving forward (165-177) Amsterdam: Rodopi Shieh, C., & Lin, K M (2011) Thematic progression patterns and the texts of the department required English test Accessed April 10, 2013 from http://irs.lib.ksu.edu.tw/NPIC/handle/987654321/97?itemsPerPage=50&locale=enUS Taboada, M., & Lavid, J (2003) Rhetorical and thematic patterns in scheduling dialogues: A generic characterization Functions of Language, 10(2), 147-179 Thompson, G (2006) Theme in text In K Brown (Ed.)., The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, (Vol 12, pp 658-668) Oxford: Elsevier Wang, L (2007) Theme and rheme in the thematic organization of text: Implications for teaching academic writing Asian EFL Journal, 9(1), 164176 Yang, X (2008) Thematic progression analysis in teaching explanation writing English Language Teaching, 1(1), 29-33 60 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ... 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. .. prime the readers‘ language Thus, the selection of the texts of the textbook Tiếng Anh 10 , book was made for purposes of revealing the structure and packaging of the information in those texts In. .. 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