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 luận sinh viên năm trường Đại học 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 luận sinh viên năm trường đại học 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 luận sinh viên năm trường đại học 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 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 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 Rationale of the Study 1.2 Aims of the Study 1.3 Scope of the Study 1.4 Methods of the Study 1.5 Significance of the Study 1.6 Design of the Study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous Studies 2.2 Literature Review 2.2.1 Definitions of Theme and Rheme 2.2.2 Experiential, Interpersonal and Textual Theme 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 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 35 Diagram 4.2 Thematic progression of students‘ essays 36 Diagram 4.3 Thematic progression of students‘ essays 37 Diagram 4.4 Thematic progression of students‘ essays 37 Diagram 4.5 Thematic progression of students‘ essays 38 Diagram 4.6 Thematic progression of students‘ essays 38 Diagram 4.7 Thematic progression of students‘ essays 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 1.2 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: How are the texts (students‘ essays) organized and developed in terms of theme-rheme patterns by the 2nd year students? How are the different cohesive ties of contexts together to make the texts cohesive? What problems 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 In life, many people spend a lot of time in work and they never have a little time with their family, so we can balance with life work Now, many people working and earning money They work to find joy and cater to their needs They go to work, they meet and talk to people Overall working very fun with some people their case‘s more special Because, a little problem, they earn money to make their lives more stable They work hard, they it every time, regardless of the job They are people who work force clear purpose Example, a man earn money to make him family He earn money, the son of daughter can go to school, he can buy a new car, … It‘s all purpose of him Simple, the work help people exist in life But, when you retire, you have different thought why don‘t we spend a lot of time with my family in the past When they achieve success, they lose things like happiness or age Those are the only things we can feel when we are young More and more time is lost People become older and older Sometimes just for the purpose we lose everything So, we need to make the smart and right choice between life and work So we don‘t have to regret it III An imbalance – a conflit between work and life occurs – when people are unable to fulfill their responsibilities whether at work or outside of work, or when these responsibilities become overloaded This condition has a negative effect on people‘s mental healthy, so that over time, people become weak and susceptible to physical illness In this essay I will point out a few causes and possible effect of the institute‘s imbalance between work and life A leading cause of people not maintaining a balance between work and personal life, people often think that everyone have to work at work too much time in the day Not only that, the soft skills and culture of communication within the organisation and equally important The next cause is the pressure they have to receive from their family, they always have to worry about their loved ones Employes should voluntarily and proactively take more challenging new tasks and provide themselves with more career development opportunities before making recommendations on adjusting salaries and benefit When we know the causes for the imbalance we can easily recognize the consequences First of all, it will directly affect that person‘s health, it makes us to always feel tired, lose sleep and depression The seconds, it will influence their families Imbalance between life and work have many discord in marriage They are easily angry with the other people They are perssured by work pressure and economic stress That is not all but also some important causes and consequences on them and their families from work-life imbalance IV Education is the most basic foundation of the whole country The more people are educated, the brighter the future of the nation and of each individual is Discussing about education, these are some ideas stating that all students must take classes that teach science even their majors are not relevant to it However, in my opinion, people should highly recommend to learn what they are keen on, so that they can have a chance to fully demonstrate their abilities First of all, learning science without using it in the future is a waste of time, for both students and professors In stead of studying science, students can freely use their time gaining knowledge of subjects that they are really into, which help for their careers Professors can also pay more focus on the people who love science, and help them to enrich their abilities Both kinds of people therefore will enjoy their teaching and studying processes and have a university lives Secondly, studying something that is not the main major will reduce students and teachers‘ motivations in their jobs Learning science may lead to the boredness of other subjects‘ students – they not know the knowledge can be used in their life, which cause to the lack of studying interest The same thing happens to professors when they have to face people who can hardly understand the subject, as well as people who always their personal work without focusing on the lecture These elements can be the factor that decrease the excitement of teachers in their teaching career In conclusion, although there exists some people saying that science class must be compulsory for every student, I dramatically argue that people should learn what they want to learn, so that they can widen their knowledge with no wasting time and always follow their true dreams and passions in the studying lives V Nowadays, many students have to take science class though it is not related to their major There is an argument that all students must have a science class in the university even if it is consequence to your field or not To my point of view, I strongly agree with this statement and there are several grounds to support my thinking One major issue is that science is very important to our life Studying science not only help you to discovered more about the things around but also to protect yourself from the dangerous To illustrate, studying science might help you gain some knowledge to know what is good or not to eat, which can harm your health The three classical fields that biology, chemistry and physics are very close to our daily life It is never too much to learn any thing The second reason might because studying will have you improve your way of thinking There is a research about studying science can help you become more creative Your brain can grow stronger when you study science because the more challenge your mind, the stronger your brain cell grow That‘s why its helps you a lot In conclusion, even though it is not related, you should study science It will helps you a lot to study other thing and to your daily life VI It is easy to misunderstand focusing on a single goat at once as leaving out all the rest Likewise, pursuing a major in a university does not necessarily relate to avoid courses of another field This essay attempts to explain why science courses must be minimum requirements for all majors First of all, science found the basis of our modern life A table cannot be manufactured without knowledge of how matter is created, formed and stable A sweater cannot be made without knowing why we feel cold; why such material, when knitting in such method, makes warms, etc The knowledge of science seems to be irrelevant to an electrician; but it helps whenever that specific person get with a science problem, which is almost everywhere For example, the logical sense behind the use of electricity proof clothes Second of all, a piece of knowledge almost never make sense immediately It is reasonable for a student studying a seemingly irrelevant field to focus just on the studies required for that field However, unecessary restriction on how one should be developing is more harmful than beneficial, because knowledge of a single subject is rarely explainable by itself As an example, consider the relation of mathematics to a literature student It is seemingly unrelated until there is a limit of words allowed for a short novel in order to keep it in such catergory For simplicity it is reasonable to skip the use of computers and now to approximate the length of a novel written in pages, it is time-consuming to this by hand With a simple counting of words per a few lines, number of lines per a few pages, and total number of pages, one can multiply all these numbers and get the result in a handy way In conclusion, science should be listed as a requirement universities Studying science is studying life in modern sense, as a humans living in this modern age, we should all be enjoying While it is true that some professors can be conservative when teaching these knowledge, the most important attitude will always be the excitement and huge curiosity towards science VII Nowadays, many universities provide variety of subjects for students in order to help them complete knowledge Many people think that science class should be complusory for students even though their major is not this field Personally, I agree with this statement because science knowledge are very important and useful for everyone Firstly, science is everything around people so that learning it is very necessary Many subjects about math could help students practice their thinking and solving problems Moreover, math is also important for everyone life For example, when people want to buy somethings, they help to know how to calculate the different prices of different products to buy the cheaper things Another science subjects could help people to understand unusual phenomenons and find out the way to prevent them Therefore, science knowledge is very important and helpful for daily life of humans Secondly, other major has slight relevance to science Thus, learning these subjects could help them to deeply understand their major problem For instance, psychology is the major studying deeply about how people behave in certain situations However, those behaviors come from the reactions inside their bodies and it relates to biology Furthermore, some subjects which is about society and human but they need science as the fundamental basic knowledge to analyse and explain their theory As a result, students have high advantages in their further major study if they understand science However, people who disagree with this opinion say that students who have bad score in science may disappoint themselves and it could affect their score in other subjects This argument may be wrong In the universities, if science has no relevance to their major, they have to study a few things about it The lectures only require them to understand simple problems about science VIII because they have not to study as hard as students in other science universities In conclusion, both arguments have their merits Nevertheless, I tend to believe that all universities should require all students to take a science class They need many knowledge preparations for their future IX Nowadays, students have to study so many subjects at the university, especially science subjects It‘s quite easy to understand cause with the higher development of technology, we need more human resource in researching for new improvement But in my opinion, science classes should not be required for students who their major doesn‘t match this field There are two reasons: the waste of time and money and the poor result Firstly, forcing students to study a subject which is not included in their major will being nothing but loss of money and time To illustrate, a student like that graduate and then work as a journalist, which means he or she doesn‘t have to use a single piece of things taught in science class In stead of the time and money invested for that subject, they could study more and improve the knowledge of their field, which leads to higher successful chance in career The second thing is teaching those subjects for people who don‘t need will only cause the exhaustion and discouragement Students only attend those class because they have to, and for most of time, they nothing but their own businesses or sleeping This will attend badly to the teachers too Seeing the class with no interest and attention from students is really annoying, which makes the lesson worse So by eliminating these classes, both the students and the teachers will benefit from it In conclusion, there are many choices of career for students now without the knowledge of science Because of that, teaching science for those students is not necessary and removing them will benefit everbody X 10 There are arguments about should all universities require students to take science classes even though it‘s not their major In many educational systems, they divide individual‘s learning ability into two groups: social type and science type And there are many opinions saying that students major in social subjects might have a hard time learning mathematics, physics or biology However, many professors suggest that every university should add science classes into those students‘ schedule, for its knowledge and logical thinking skills Firstly, science is everything surround us, even ourselves So when we learn science, we learn about our bodies, how they function and about the national around us But through science, we can discover about what our bodies are made of, how many chemical components in our food Not only that, but also about many other creatures So in short, science provides us with the foundation knowledge about the world we living Another benefit that science offers us is that it helps us to have a logical mind In science, everything happens for a reason and every equation has one or maybe many solutions to solve It requires us to think deeper and faster Logical thinking skills are very difficult to train, but they are also very essential in our life In conclusion, to social major students, science could be a very difficult challenge to surpass, but we cannot deny the advantages that science offers us: the foundation knowledge and the logical mind XI 11 When it comes to the question whether the university should require students to take a science class outside his field, people tend to develop various ideas Some people adopt the idea that participating in science class may bring students several benefits Others are inclined to the notion that it is not effective for the university to force students take part in science class Personally, I find myself in the same place as the former ones for the following reasons First and foremost, enrolling in a science class are the ways for students to enrich their knowledge It is obvious that students are likely to know more about how everything works in their daily lives For example, if a student study electric class, he will know the mechanism of how electricity works If their electricity circuit is broken, they are likely to repair it My mother studies business but she also studys several science classes She can deal with problems around her easily Some people may claim that is a waste of time for students to study subjects that is not pertinent to their major These knowledge will not be applied in real life However, this is not true Every field is dependent on other fields No single field can work on its own The more a person knows, the more likely he will become success in the future In the second place, participating in science class brings significant benefits in terms of career preparation It is dispensable that nowadays, companies recruit employees that gain knowledge in different fields The more knowledge and understanding a person has in various fields, the more likely he wil be recruited or accepted For instance, some secretary or manager positions not only required people to know marketing or business but also required people to deal with computers There is an assertion that people need to focus only on his fields and his best Taking up science courses may deviate their attention Companies and recruiter pay their attention to find XII people with various knowledge They think that these people can more things outsider their own jobs In conlusion, I find myself definitely agree with those who asserts that it is suitable for universities students to join in science classes Students are bound to cope with things around and may have more opportunities to get a job in the future XIII 12 Many universities require students to take a science class which has no relevance to their major Although science classes can bring many benefits, students shouldn‘t be forced to take the classes because they have no motivation to study and need more time for classes in their field If students are made to studied so one thing he or she doesn‘t want to, that students will not it seriously For students of other majors science class seems to be unnecessary and very boring With no motivation, they will just study for the exam Certainly, they will forget everything they have learned after the class end Some students will even not study and find a way to cheat on the test Therefore, they will miss all of the benefits from the class Forcing them to study will just create more problems Many students also don‘t have enough time to study his or her class in their field When they have to attend more classes, they will have less time for their major If these classes are cut off, they will have time to other things like learning new skill, work to get more experience, … Their time will be used efficiently to bring them many benefits that they will need in the future Students don‘t have much time so their time should be used efficiently Science classes really have many benefits However, those benefits will only come to students who are willing to take it Therefore, students should have the right to choose to take it or not XIV 13 In university, a student has a lot of choices for his or her major that can satisfy his/ her passion Plenty of the fields in university have no relation to science especially those relate to culture Nevertheless, students should be obligated to study science class because the knowledge is useful and they can learn many skills Firstly, sciences help learners to have a better understanding of their surrounding world Everything learned in science, one way or another, can explainon events occurs in daily life This will help students to deal with a lot of situations or problems that they may encounter For example, an art student with chemistry knowledge will be able to predict how his/her paint will interact with the material he/ she is working on without testing Some may argue that science is sometimes not capable of assisting in their troubles, if may happen but nevertheless they will have more options to consider Secondly, studying science subjects requires many skills tha prove to be useful Everything in science is related to each other therefore students who want to comprehend the subjects will learn the ability to third logically For example, researchs have pointed out that doing math can improve the ability of a person in problem Solving other relating skills like doing reseach experimenting, report writing can be really useful in other courses However, a lot of students think that science classes take a lot of their time and effect Actually, this is a good way for students to spend their time out of main classes in stead of partying or doing useless stuff In conclusion, science class should be complusory in university XV 14 Nowadays, many students have to take science class though it is not related to their major There is an argument that all students must have a science class in the university even if the consequence to your field or not To my point of view, I strongly agree with this statement and there are several grounds to support my thinking One major issue is that science is very important to our life Studying science not only help you to discovered more about the things around but also to protect yourself from the dangerous To illustrate, studying science might help you gain some knowledge to know what is good or not to eat, which can harm your health The three classical fields that biology, chemistry and physics are very close to our daily life It is never too much to learn any thing The second reason is because studying science will have you improve your way of thinking There is a research about studying science can help you become more creative Your brain can grow stronger when you study science because the more you challenge your mind, the stronger your brain cell grow That‘s why it helps you a lot In conclusion, even though it is not related, you should study science It will helps you a lot to study other thing and to your daily life XVI 15 The balance between work and daily life occurs when people are unable to fulfill their reponsibilities whether at work or outside of work This condition has a negative effect not only on people‘s mental health but also on their family relationships The first cause of work and daily life imbalance is because pursuing a career them to sacrifice so many other meaningful things in their lives Besides, work pressure is also a cause for them to neglect or forget many other important aspects of life and this is the long run can have a serious impact on their health Because of work pressure, they are easy to get angry and affect their family members and conflit between members The stress due to stress from work makes them distract, often feel anxiety and insecurity Headaches, back pain to heart disease and many other serious chronic illnesses as a result of stress that lasts too long Excessive passion for work is what makes relationships with their families worse They not how much time to take care of their families, leading to members feeling bored with their families In conclusion, the balance between work and life is very important It helps people ensure and harmonize their needs in term of health, spirit, family and social relationships XVII ...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. .. 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 1.2 Aims of the Study The aim of this study is to use theme-rheme... 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