THEMATIC STRUCTURES IN STUDENTS’ RESEARCH PAPERS AND ORAL PRESENTATIONS:A Case Study of Postgraduate Program in English Education at UPI Bandung.

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Sidik Indra Nugraha, 2014

THEMATIC STRUCTURES IN STUDENTS’ RESEARCH PAPERS AND ORAL PRESENTATIONS : A Case Study of Postgraduate Program in English Education at UPI Bandung

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu

THEMATIC STRUCTURES IN STUDENT

S’

RESEARCH

PAPERS AND ORAL PRESENTATIONS

(A Case Study of Postgraduate Program in English Education at UPI Bandung)

A Thesis

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for Master’s Degree in English Education

Sidik Indra N

1102679

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH EDUCATION

SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

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Thematic Structures in Student

s’

Research Papers and Oral

Presentations

(A Case Study of Postgraduate Program

in English Education at UPI Bandung)

Oleh Sidik Indra N

S.Pd UPI Bandung, 2005

Sebuah Tesis yang diajukan untuk memenuhi salah satu syarat memperoleh gelar Magister Pendidikan (M.Pd.) pada Fakultas Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni

Desember 2014

Hak Cipta dilindungi undang-undang.

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dengan dicetak ulang, difoto kopi, atau cara lainnya tanpa ijin dari penulis.

APPROVAL SHEET

Thematic Structures in Students’ Research Papers and Oral Presentations

By:

Sidik Indra N

1102679

Approved by:

Supervisor

Iwa Lukmana, M.A., Ph. D. NIP 196611271993031002

Head of English Education Department

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THEMATIC STRUCTURES IN STUDENTS’ RESEARCH PAPERS AND ORAL PRESENTATIONS : A Case Study of Postgraduate Program in English Education at UPI Bandung

ABSTRACT

This research aims to investigate the thematic structures in students’ research papers and oral presentations. Specifically, it focuses on two aspects, i.e. types of Theme and realizations of topical Theme in students’ research papers and oral presentations. It is qualitative in nature, and involves three students’ research papers and transcribed students’ oral presentations as the main research data. Findings from the research show differences of thematic structures in students’ research papers and oral presentations in terms of the types of Theme used and realizations of topical Theme. Firstly, the types of Theme used in students’ research papers and oral presentations were interpersonal, textual, and topical. Topical Theme was the most frequently used type of Theme, with the total of 72.7% and 56.3% in students’ research papers and oral presentations respectively. After topical Theme came textual Theme, constituting 26.1% and 39.5% of overall Themes in both types of text respectively. Finally, interpersonal Theme was the least common type of Theme found in students’ research papers (1.2%) and oral presentations (5.2%). Secondly, the topical Themes in both types of text were realized by relatively similar elements including nominal group with common or proper noun as Head, nominal group with personal pronoun as Head, nominal group with nominalization as Head, prepositional phrase, nominal group with proper noun as Head, dependent clause, adverbial group, non-representational it, reference item, existential, embedded clause, and question word. Of these twelve elements realizing the topical Themes, nominal group with common noun as head mostly occurred in students’ research papers (46.1%) and oral presentations (40.3%). Considering these findings, it is concluded that the variation regarding the types of Theme and realizations of topical Theme in both types of text may be attributed to the mode variation of the texts, i.e. distinction between spoken and written language. This variation of thematic structure is related to the role the language plays in the realization of the context of situation, in this case, students’ research papers and oral presentations. It is recommended that teaching on the way the message is organized in both written and spoken contexts of language use be given to students to improve coherence and cohesion of text.

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ABSTRAKSI

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menginvestigasi struktur tematis dalam tulisan ilmiah dan presentasi lisan mahasiswa. Secara spesifik penelitian ini menyoroti dua aspek, yakni, jenis Theme dan realisasinya dalam tulisan ilmiah dan presentasi lisan mahasiswa. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kualitatif dan melibatkan masing-masing tiga tulisan ilmiah dan presentasi lisan mahasiswa sebagai data penelitian. Hasil analisis menunjukan perbedaan struktur tematis dalam tulisan ilmiah dan presentasi lisan mahasiswa. Pertama, jenis Theme yang digunakan dalam tulisan ilmiah dan presentasi lisan mahasiswa adalah interpersonal, textual, dan topical.

Topical Theme merupakan jenis Theme yang paling banyak muncul, yaitu, 72,7%

dalam tulisan ilmiah siswa dan 56,3% dalam presentasi lisan mahasiswa. Berikutnya adalah textual Theme dengan persentase 26.1% dan 39.5% di kedua jenis teks secara berurutan. Interpersonal Theme adalah jenis Theme yang paling jarang muncul, dengan persentase 1,2% dalam tulisan ilmiah dan 5.2% dalam presentasi lisan mahasiswa. Kedua, topical Theme direalisasikan dengan elemen yang sama di kedua jenis teks termasuk nominal group with common or proper noun as Head, nominal

group with personal pronoun as Head, nominal group with nominalization as Head, prepositional phrase, nominal group with proper noun as Head, dependent clause, adverbial group, non-representational it, reference item, existential, embedded clause, and question word. Dari keduabelas elemen tersebut nominal group

merupakan elemen yang paling sering muncul, 46.1% kemunculan dalam tulisan ilmiah dan 40.3% dalam persentasi lisan. Dari temuan diatas dapat disimpulkan bahwa variasi jenis Theme dan realisasinya di kedua jenis teks dapat disebabkan oleh variasi modus di kedua jenis teks, yakni, bahasa tulis dan lisan. Variasi tematis berhubungan dengan peran bahasa dalam merealisasikan konteks situasi. Dalam pengajaran bahasa siswa harus diajarkan cara menyusun teks dalam kedua jenis modus, lisan dan tulisan, yang benar sehingga mereka mampu menulis teks yang kohesif dan koheren.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i

TABLE OF CONTENT ii

LIST OF TABLES v

LIST OF FIGURES vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1Research background 1

1.2Research questions 3

1.3Aims of the research 4

1.4Significance of the research 4

1.5Definitions of terms 5

1.6Thesis organization 6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1Introduction 7

2.2Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) 8

2.3Language metafunctions 11

2.3.1 Interpersonal meaning (clause as exchange) 11

2.3.2 Ideational meaning (clause as representation) 12

2.3.3 Textual meaning (clause as message) 12

2.4The grammar of textual meaning: THEME 13

2.4.1 The system of Theme 13

2.4.2 Types of Theme 16

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2.4.2.2Interpersonal Theme 16

2.4.2.2.1 Finite (unfused) as interpersonal Theme 17

2.4.2.2.2 Mood Adjuncts as interpersonal Theme 17

2.4.2.2.3 Vocative Adjuncts as interpersonal Theme 17

2.4.2.2.4 Polarity Adjunct 17

2.4.2.2.5 Comment Adjunct 18

2.4.2.3Textual Theme 18

2.4.2.3.1 Continuity Adjunct as Theme 18

2.4.2.3.2 Conjunctive Adjunct as Theme 18

2.5Register variable of mode 19

2.5.1 Spatial/interpersonal distance 20

2.5.2 Experiential distance 19

2.6Academic language: functional perspective 24

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1Research design 27

3.2Research site and participants 27

3.3Procedures of data collections 28

3.4Data analysis 29

CHAPTER 4 DATA PRESENTATIONS AND ANALYSIS

4.1Types of Theme get used in student’s research papers

and oral presentations 31

4.1.1 General findings: trend in the use of Themes

in student’s papers and oral presentations 31

4.1.2 Types of Theme in research papers 36

4.1.2.3Topical Theme 46

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4.1.3.3Topical Theme 59

4.2Realizations of topical Theme in student’s research papers

and oral presentations 62

4.2.1 General findings: trend in selections of topical Theme

in student’s research papers and oral presentations 62 4.2.2 Realizations of topical Theme in research papers 66

4.2.2.1Nominal group: common noun as Head 67

4.2.2.2Nominal group: personal pronoun as Head 68

4.2.2.3Nominal group: nominalizations as Head 69

4.2.2.4Prepositional phrase 70

4.2.3 Realizations of topical Theme in oral presentations 81

4.2.3.1Nominal group: common noun as Head 81

4.2.3.2Nominal group: personal pronoun as Head 82

4.2.3.3Nominal group: nominalization as Head 83

4.2.3.4Prepositional phrase 84

4.2.3.5Dependent clause 85

4.2.3.6Adverbial group 88

4.2.3.7Existential 89

4.2.3.8Embedded clause 90

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CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Conclusion 98

5.2 Recommendation 101

BIBLIOGRAPHY 103

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides the general issues related to the current research. It includes

background of the study, research question, purpose of the study, significance of

the study, definition of terms and thesis organization.

1.1Research background

Halliday‟s Systemic Functional Linguistics (hence SFL) influence on language learning has been of great interest to researchers. This is believed to owe to its

particular specialization on the concept of metafunctions, i.e. interpersonal,

ideational and textual, as opposed to the traditional grammar (see Eggins, 2004).

Within SFL theory, language users are able to express these three kinds of

meaning simultaneously by utilizing a set of grammatical choices available in the

lexico-grammar system. As the theory posits, the interpersonal, ideational and

textual metafunction are the semantic meanings for which people make when

interacting (Eggins, 2004). Interpersonal metafunction expresses the writer‟s role

relationship with the reader as well as the writer‟s attitude towards the subject

matter. Ideational metafunction shows the way the writers make sense of the

world. Textual metafunction suggests the way the text is organized.

It is particularly this latter strand of metafunction that is of important for

its role that partly contributes to realizing textual meanings. According to Halliday

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Research into thematic structure in texts has been revealing. Several

research compared the thematic structure in different genres (see, for example,

Ghadessy, 1999; Ebrahimi and Heng, 2012), whereas several others compared the

thematic structure and aspects of students‟ writing of different level of score (e.g.,

Ping, 2007; Kawaguchi, Haenouchi, & Ichinose, 2009). Research into thematic

structure of interlanguage texts has also been prevalent. For example, Green,

Christopher, & Mei (2000) reported a comparison of corpus academic writings

produced by non-native speakers of Chinese student and native speakers of

English in relation to the occurences of the two fronting devices (i.e., beginning

For and Concerning) and the three thematized connectors (i.e., Besides, Furthermore and Moreover). Mirahayuni (2002) investigated the textual structure

of research articles written by English speakers, Indonesian writers writing in

English, and Indonesian writers writing in Indonesian. Some attention has also

been given to thematic progression in academic research articles (e.g.,

Soepriatmadji, 2009; Herriman, 2011; Nuraeningsih, 2012; Sharndama &

Panamah, 2013; Shi, 2013). These studies described the way the thematic

structure and progression contribute to cohesion and coherence of texts.

Thematic structure and its utilization in the field of language teaching has

been an especially popular area of research. Several action research reported the

effectiveness of incorporating thematic structure in teaching writing (e.g., Ren,

Cao, Gao, & Li, 2009; Priyatmojo, 2012 ; Farikah, Nurkamto, & Sofwan, 2013).

The results showed a considerable improvement of students‟ competence in

developing paragraph of certain genres.

In translation studies thematic organization has been of an issue. Khedri

and Ebrahimi (2012) reported the efficacy of thematic structure to keep the

rhetoric and argumentation well-structured. Several studies have mostly dealt with

the way the translator tackled the issues of textual devices (i.e. thematic

organization and progression) when a text was translated into another language

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problems as regards the thematic issue, Dejica-Cartis and Cozma (2013) proposed

a process-based translation by putting a methodological approach for integrating

information-structure theories in translation process.

Although considerable research has been devoted to thematic structure,

these research have tended to focus on a single mode of discourse, i.e. written

(e.g. Ghadessy, 1999; Ebrahimi and Heng, 2012; Ping, 2007; Kawaguchi,

Haenouchi, & Ichinose, 2009). It would seem, therefore, that further

investigations are needed in order to find out the thematic realizations in two

different modes of discourse, i.e. spoken and written. The aim of the present

research is to compare the realizations of thematic structures in students‟ research

papers and oral presentations. To be specific, it will reveal the types of Theme and

linguistic realizations of topical Theme in research papers and oral presentations.

Selections of type of Theme and realizations of topical Theme to become the

focus of investigation because they will reveal variations between two types of

text, considering there is a choice between using textual and interpersonal

thematic elements. In addition, topical Theme is expected to occur in each clause

for its vital role in giving the content to the clause (see Thompson, 2004; Martin,

Matthiessen and Pinter, 1997), and thus is crucial to look at what it is (see Eggins,

1994, 2004). Topical Theme can be realized in various elements such as nominal

group, dependent clause, embedded clause, etc.

The selection of research papers and oral presentations being the focus of

investigation is motivated by a consideration that these two have become an

important part in academic tradition particularly postgraduate level. Research papers constitute students‟ mastery of a subject matter, and as it turns out, they are often followed up by oral presentations. The analysis of Theme will provide

evidence that the two types of text are alike to several respects, but different to the

other: the texts may be ideationally and interpersonally similar but textually

different. It is hoped that the information presented will be useful to students of

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spoken and written language in terms of the way they are structured, which

realizes the textual meaning of the text.

1.2Research questions

The questions that this research seeks to answer are formulated as follows:

1. What types of Theme are used in students‟ research papers and oral

presentations?

2. What is selected to be Topical Theme in students‟ research papers and

oral presentations?

1.3Aims of the research

The research is aimed to:

1. find out the types of Theme get used in students‟ research papers and oral

presentations. The type of Theme is expected to vary according to the

mode variations of the texts.

2. reveal the elements selected to be the topical Theme in students‟ research

papers and oral presentations. The language use in different mode will

somehow affect the lexical choices as well as their structure in clauses.

This in turn will reveal the characteristics of spoken and written language

in terms of its thematic structure.

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The following significant points are expected from this case study:

1. It imparts a contribution to the theory of functional linguistics. The study

of functional linguistics has mostly dealt with the way the metafunctions

are realized in either written or spoken mode. The current research,

however, extends the analysis to uncover how the Theme is structured in

written mode as compared to that of spoken mode. This will indicate that

the texts are alike to some extents but different to the other.

2. It contributes to raising students‟ awareness of the way the message is

structured in both written and spoken mode. As for non-native language

users particularly in Indonesian context, it is helpful to provide accounts

towards how the language is used according to its context and purpose.

1.5Definition of terms

The technical terms prominently used in this research are defined as follows:

1. Academic language refers to language typically used in the school context

that gives access to students to acquire knowledge and that serves as a tool

of thinking (Schleppegrell, 2004).

2. Metafunction is defined as “the highly generalized functions language has

evolved to serve and which are evidenced in its organization”

(Matthiessen, Teruya, & Lam, 2010: 138).

3. Mode refers to “the role language is playing in an interaction” (Martin,

1984, in Eggins, 2004: 90).

4. Register is “A variety of language determined by a particular set of values

of the context; it is determined by what the speaker is doing socially”

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5. Systemic functional linguistics (SFL) refers to “a functional approach to

language which explores both how people use language in different contexts, and how language is structured for use a semiotic system” (Eggins, 2004: 20).

6. Theme is defined as “Textual system for organizing the clause as a

message, more specifically for assigning an element or set of elements of

the clause the textual status of prominence as orientation or local context

for the interpretation of the rest of the clause—the point of departure in the

process of interpreting the clause” (Matthiessen, Teruya, & Lam, 2010:

223).

7. Topical Theme refers to “an element of the clause in which a Transitivity function can be assigned occurs in first position in a clause” (Eggins, 2004: 301).

1.6Thesis organization

This research is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1 consists of the background

of the study which elaborates a general description of the research focus under

discussion. The following sub-chapter includes research questions, purpose of the

study, significance of the study, definition of terms and thesis organization.

Chapter 2 elaborates theoretical bases underlying the present research. It mainly

discusses the language approach of Halliday‟s SFL to analyze the thematic

structure in students‟ research papers and oral presentations. It subsequently

provides a description on the concept of register, mode and language features

typical in academic setting.

Chapter 3 describes the methodology employed in this research. It includes

research design, research setting and participants, data collection and data

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Chapter 4 presents the data presentation and data analysis. The data presentation

describes the choice of types of Theme including textual, interpersonal, and

topical Theme in students‟ research papers and oral presentations. They also

present the elements used to be the topical Theme in both types of text. They are

discussed by referring to relevant theories and previous studies.

Chapter 5 provides conclusion and suggestions drawn from this research. The

conclusion is made based on the research findings and the discussion regarding

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CHAPTER 3

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter describes the research strategy that is used to study the realizations of

thematic structures in research papers and oral presentations. It provides an

account of the specific research design, research site and participants, data

collection and data analysis.

3.1 Research design

As described earlier in Chapter 1, this research attempts to investigate the

thematic choices and realizations of topical Theme in students‟ research papers

and oral presentations. Relevant to this inquiry, qualitative research is adopted

since it provides descriptive data concerning what people wrote and said as well

as how they behaved (Anderson, 1987: 384, in Hatch, 2002: 6). Furthermore,

there are several characteristics of qualitative found in this research (Hatch, 2002:

6-11); Alwasilah, 2000: 36; Best & Kahn, 1993: 185). Firstly, the natural setting

of the current research is that the research was conducted in a classroom whereby

the students were doing oral presentations of the research papers. Secondly, it is

the researcher himself as the main data gathering instrument; the researcher

directly collected the main data of the research including students‟ document of

research papers and videotaped oral presentations. Thirdly, the data are analyzed

inductively. The researcher collected the data from the research setting, and then

began to consider patterns that emerge from the data.

This research is designed as case study. Case study, according to Creswell

(2007, cited in Liamputtong, 2009: 76), is:

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information (e.g., observations, interviews, audiovisual material, and documents and reports), and reports of a case description and case-based themes.

Based on the definition above, several points can be drawn that characterize this

research as case study. Firstly, the “case” identified for the research involves a

course as well as students attending it. Secondly, this “case” is a bounded system,

that is, bounded by time (two weeks of data collection) and a place (situated at a

single campus). Thirdly, the data collection involves multiple sources of

information, i.e. students‟ documentations and audiovisual materials, to generate a

complete picture of the realizations of thematic structures in students‟ research

papers and oral presentations (see Richards, 2003; Hood, 2009).

Focusing on how the Theme-Rheme is structured in students‟ research

papers and oral presentations, case study is a useful method for this purpose of

research. It is designed as a viable strategy for researchers which anchored their inquiry in providing answers for „how, „why‟ or „what‟, or in a condition that limits researchers to handle the complexity of events as a whole (Burns, 1994:

313)

3.2 Research site and participants

The research was conducted at English Department of Postgraduate School in one

of state universities in Bandung. It involved a course of Teaching English for

Young Learners (TEYL) of academic year 2012. This selection was due to a

consideration that proficient English command was highly demanding for the

students at this level in order to engage in academic culture and to develop

professional confidence. In addition, one of the course-related tasks required

students to write a research-based paper as a partial fulfillment of course

completion. Research-based papers represented students‟ expertise regarding the

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they were followed up by students‟ oral presentations with respect to the papers

that the students had written.

In this research three students of postgraduate program in English were

selected purposively as research participants (see Alwasilah, 2000: 56;

Liamputtong, 2011: 11; Dornyei, 2007). This selection of purposive sampling is

based on a consideration that the participants were considered to have

characteristics and information that were relevant to the research focus under

discussion (Ritchie and Lewis, 2003). The characteristics and information

discussed here deal with the textual structures the students used in research papers

and oral presentations. They were assumed to bear information regarding the

contrastive aspects in terms of their thematic structure developed in these two

types of text.

3.3 Data collection

The data of students‟ research papers and oral presentations were collected using

two methods, i.e. documentation of students‟ research papers and video-taped oral

presentations. Since this research were undertaken involving a course, the data

collections were conducted in coordination with the lecturers. The research papers

were collected as scheduled in the syllabus. To collect the data of students‟ oral

presentations, the researcher attended each meeting when the students presented

their papers, and video-taped them by means of a video-taping device. This was

done after all students had submitted their research papers.

3.4 Data analysis

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2004). The analyses in this research were performed in sequences. Firstly, the data

of videotaped oral presentations were transcribed. Next step was divide all texts of students‟ research papers and transcribed oral presentations into clauses since thematic analysis operates at the level of clause. After that, each clause in both

types of texts was analyzed to determine the boundary between Theme and

Rheme. The principle of deciding where Theme begins and stops is by

considering that the element(s) that comes first at the beginning of the clause

including the first topical element would be considered as Theme. The Theme was

analyzed with respect to the types of Theme, i.e. topical, interpersonal, and

textual. The topical Theme includes selections of marked or unmarked Theme;

interpersonal Themes consist of selections of (unfused) Finite, Mood Adjunct,

Vocative Adjunct, Polarity Adjunct, and Comment Adjunct as interpersonal

Theme; and, textual Themes involve selections of Conjunctions, Continuity

Adjunct and Conjunctive Adjunct. All occurrences of each type of Theme were

quantified and provided in percentage (%).

Having completed the analysis of types of Theme, the analysis proceeded

with the realizations of topical Theme in students‟ research papers and oral

presentations. This included various elements potentially selected to be topical

Theme, for example, nominal group, nominalization, dependent clause,

prepositional phrase, etc. All occurrences of each element used to be the topical in students‟ research papers and oral presentations were quantified and presented in percentage (%). All findings related to types of Theme and selections of topical

Theme in students‟ research papers and oral presentations were discussed by

taking into account relevant theories and previous research.

3.5Conclusion

This chapter has elaborated the research methodology that the current research

will employ including research design, research site and participants, data

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CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

This chapter provides conclusions of the findings in relation to the research questions

formulated in Chapter 1, i.e. types of Theme and realizations of topical Theme in students’ research papers and oral presentations. Recommendations for further study are also provided.

5.1Conclusion

This research investigated the thematic structures in students’ research papers and

oral presentations. Specifically, it attempted to find out the types of Theme and

realizations of topical Theme in students’ research papers and oral presentations. The

findings related to the types of Theme and realizations of topical Theme in students’

research papers and oral presentations highlighted a number of differences of

thematic structures between the two types of text.

Considering the first research question, i.e. types of Theme used in students’

research papers and oral presentations, the two types of texts shared similar types of

Theme, i.e. interpersonal, textual, and topical. However, the occurrence of each type

of Theme in both texts varies considerably. Firstly, interpersonal Theme in the form

of Modal Adjuncts tends to occur more commonly in oral presentations (5.2%) rather

than in research papers (1.2%). This variation may stem from the fact that Modal

Adjuncts realizing interpersonal Theme are movable; it is the speaker’s choice either

to assign Modal Adjuncts a thematic role or simply to consign them into the Rheme.

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the Mood Adjunct realizing interpersonal Theme in students’ research papers were Adjunct, there were several cases when the interpersonal Themes in student’s oral presentations were realized by grammatical metaphor. The occurrence of

interpersonal Theme in student’s oral presentations suggests the speaker’s evaluation

of something s/he has presented, whereas interpersonal Theme in research papers

may be considered as a way to create “approachable, fallible style” of text (Eggins,

2004: 322).

Secondly, the findings related to textual Theme revealed considerable

differences of thematic structure between students’ research papers and oral

presentations. This finding again confirms the proposition stated earlier that mode

variation apparently affects the realizations of textual Theme in both types of text.

Textual Theme can consist of any element of Conjunctive Adjuncts, Conjunctions,

and Continuity Adjuncts. It was found that textual Theme tend to be used more

frequently in student’s oral presentations (39.5%) than that in students’ research

papers (26.1%). Conjunctive Adjuncts tend to appear more commonly in student’s

oral presentations (10.3%) than those in students’ research papers (5.1%). They

contribute to developing the rhetorical structure in students’ research papers (see Gerot and Wignel, 1994). Conjunctions occurred more frequently in student’s oral presentations (27.1%) than those in students’ research papers (20.2%). This is

relevant to the nature of spoken language in which clause complexes may abound as

indicated by an extensive use of Conjunctions that link the clauses within sentences

(see Eggins, 2004; Schleppegrell, 2004). Continuity Adjuncts, typical textual

elements in spoken language, were only found in student’s oral presentations.

Thirdly, realizations of topical Themes in students’ research papers and oral

presentations with respect to the use of marked and unmarked topical Theme revealed

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Themes tend to occur more frequently in students’ research papers (11.7%) than that

in student’s oral presentations (7.2%). Marked Themes in research papers contribute

to doing coherence work in that they present information of previous texts and make

them as the point of departure of the clause (see Thompson, 2004). They also allow

other elements that are not usually functioning as Subject to become the Themes of

the clause without making them Subject in declarative Mood. By contrast, marked

topical Themes in oral presentations were often used to signal schematic move when

speakers presented their research papers (see Lock, 1996).

The findings related to the second research question, i.e. realizations of topical

Theme in students’ research papers and oral presentations, revealed further

characteristics of thematic structures in both texts. It was revealed that the nominal

group with common noun as Head was frequently used in both students’ research

papers (46.1%) and oral presentations (40.3%). Despite this similarity, this element

was in fact realized differently in both types of text. It was found that the speakers in

oral presentations tend to use brief nominal groups, which refer to specific common

nouns or simple prepositional phrases. In contrast to oral presentations, research

papers were often loaded with relatively lengthy nominal groups. Nominal groups

containing nominalizations as Head were also found quite frequently in research

papers. In addition to nominal group with common noun as Head, the use of nominal

group with personal pronoun as Head is also worth noticing. It was the second

element mostly selected to be the topical Theme both in students’ research papers

(14.1%) and oral presentations (30.5%). In oral presentations, it is often the case that

the speakers identify themselves by using first person singular pronoun I, which is

hardly used in students’ research papers.

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considered partly as realizing textual meaning. The textual meaning realized deals

with the way the messages are organized so that they “fit smoothly into the unfolding language event” (Thompson, 2004: 141; see also Lock, 1996: 219; Martin, Matthiessen, & Pinter, 1997: 21; Eggins, 2004: 320). In this case, it is the students’

research papers and oral presentations. It was revealed how the thematic structures in students’ research papers differ quite considerably from those in oral presentations by offering choices of what Theme to be selected as the point of departure of the clause,

either single Theme that consists of topical Theme only, or multiple Theme that

consists of a combination of textual and/or interpersonal and topical Theme. The

realizations topical Theme in students’ research papers and oral presentations also

revealed another differing aspect between the two types of texts. In oral presentations,

it was found that the topical Themes tend to be brief nominal groups of personal

pronoun, or particular commons nouns. In research papers, by contrast, the elements

selected to be the topical Themes tend to be relatively lengthy nominal groups,

containing lengthy strings of word. Nominalizations and dependent clauses were also

frequently given a thematic prominence of topical Theme. In addition to the analysis

of thematic structures in clausal level, the analysis of higher level of Theme, i.e.

macro- and hyper-Theme also reveals that both types of text are considered cohesive

and coherent. This can be observed from the predictive relations between the macro-

and hyper-Theme in both types of text.

5.2Recommendations

This research investigates the differences between spoken and written texts with

respect to the thematic structures in students’ research papers and oral presentations.

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of the text in both spoken and written language (see Martin, 2001). Given the

importance of thematic structure in organizing the message of the texts, there are two

suggestions that can be made in relation to the practice of English as Foreign

Language (EFL) teaching particularly college level in which research papers and oral

presentations become an essential part in this academic level, and linguistic research

on thematic structure.

Firstly, with regard to the practice of EFL teaching, it is recommended that

teaching on the way the message is organized in both written and spoken context of

language use be given to students to improve coherence and cohesion of text (see

Martin, 2001; Nunan, 1991). In addition, it is important that students be exposed to

various research papers from which they internalize some characteristics of research

papers especially in terms of the way the message is organized. For example, it is

quite common that academic texts use abstract ideas as the point of departure

(Eggins, 2004; see also Martin, 1993). In addition, nominalization is commonly used

as the clause Theme since it allows for reiteration of prior information to be used as

the point of departure in the writer’s succeeding clause. Clause combination strategies

signifying taxis and projections are the other points that need to be addressed

properly in the teaching of writing because they play important roles in logical

relationships either within or between sentences.

Secondly, for further research, it is recommended that other researcher

analyze the method of development of research papers as compared to that of oral

presentations. This will generate a complete description of how the texts are different.

More importantly, this will show how thematic elements are related to each other,

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