THEME AND THEMATIC PROGRESSION ANALYSIS OF ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION TEXTS.

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THEME AND THEMATIC PROGRESSION ANALYSIS

OF ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION TEXTS

A Thesis

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Master’s Degree

in English Education

By:

RAFITA TIORIA SIANIPAR

1302568

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

INDONESIA UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

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Theme and Thematic Progression Analysis

of Analytical Exposition Texts

Oleh

Rafita Tioria Sianipar

S.Pd. Universitas Negeri Medan, 2011

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

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

Agustus 2015

Hak Cipta dilindungi undang-undang.

Tesis ini tidak boleh diperbanyak seluruhnya atau sebagian,

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Rafita Tioria Sianipar, 2015

THEME AND THEMATIC PROGRESSION ANALYSIS OF ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION TEXTS Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia | repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu

ABSTRACT

As part of the bigger study conducted by Emilia, et al. (2014) on the implementation of Genre Based Approach (GBA) in teaching writing in tertiary context (see also Emilia, 2011), this study focuses on investigating the realization of the Theme and

the thematic progression in students’ analytical exposition texts in a state university

in Bandung. This study also intends to find out the contribution of the Theme and

thematic progression on the nature of the students’ analytical exposition texts. To fulfill its objectives, this study employs a descriptive-qualitative research design embracing the characteristics of a case study approach. The data are obtained from the collection of students’ analytical exposition texts. This study uses the theory of Theme system developed by Halliday (1994), Eggins (1994; 2004) and the theory of thematic progression proposed by Eggins (1994; 2004 as the framework to analyze the data. This study reveals that the there are three types of Theme realized in

students’ writings: Topical Theme, Interpersonal Theme, and Textual Theme, and

there are also three types of thematic progression pattern applied in students’ texts:

Theme Reiteration pattern, Zig Zag pattern, and Multiple Theme pattern. The findings also suggest that the Theme and thematic progression support the nature of the analytical exposition texts written by the students to some extent: the Topical Theme represents the generalized participants in the texts, the Interpersonal Theme helps students stating their positions, while the Textual Theme provides cohesion and coherence and also connects steps in arguments in the students’ texts. In terms of thematic progression patterns, the Multiple Theme pattern gives signposts for the arguments in the text level, the Theme Reiteration helps students maintain the focus of the arguments in the clause level, and the Zig Zag pattern reinforces the arguments also in the clause level, particularly in relation of causality, in the students’ analytical exposition texts. In terms of the structure, the texts written by the students has met the nature of analytical exposition text. This study, as part of the bigger study on GBA, indicates that GBA can lead students to write good analytical exposition texts. Therefore, it is recommended that GBA is implemented in the teaching-learning process, and that the Theme and thematic progression is taught explicitly at educational settings.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ………. i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………...ii

ABSTRACT ………... iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS ……….... v LIST OF TABLES ………...viii

LIST OF FIGURES ………...ix

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ………... 1

1.1 Rationale………...………..1

1.2 Research Questions………...………...3

1.3 Scope of the Study………...………...3

1.4 Significance of the Study………...3

1.5 Operational Definition ………...4

1.6 Organization of the Paper ………...4

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION………... 6

2.1 Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) ………. 6

2.1.1 Basic Principles of SFL……… 7

2.1.2 Basic Notions of SFL………...10

2.1.2.1 Text and Context………...10

2.1.2.2 Metafunctions………...……... 12

2.2 Theme System………...……... 14

2.2.1 Boundary of Theme………... 15

2.2.1.1 Topical Theme ……….15

2.2.1.2 Interpersonal Theme ………19

2.2.1.3 Textual Theme ……….21

2.2.2 Theme in Different Clause Types ………..23

2.2.2.1 Theme in Declarative Clauses ……….23

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2.2.2.3 Theme in Imperative Clauses ………...27

2.2.2.4 Theme in Exclamative Clauses ………28

2.2.3 Longer Unit Theme ………28

2.2.4 Thematic Progression ……….31

2.2.4.1 The Zig Zag Pattern ……….32

2.2.4.2 The Theme Reiteration Pattern ………33

2.2.4.3 The Multiple Theme Pattern ………34

2.2.5 Higher Level Themes: Macro- and Hyper- Themes ………..37

2.3 Genre ………38

2.3.1 The Genre of Arguing: Expositions ………...40

2.3.1.1 Analytical Exposition Text ………..43

2.3.1.2 Generic Structure of Analytical Exposition Text ………….44

2.3.1.3 Linguistic Features of Analytical Exposition Text ………..45

2.4 The Importance of Analyzing Theme and Thematic Progression ……...48

2.5 Related Studies ………49

2.6 Concluding Remark ……….53

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ……….…………..54

3.1 Research Design...54

3.2 Site and Participants ...54

3.3 Data Collection ...55

3.4 Data Analysis………... 55

3.4.1 Reading the Texts……….………. 56

3.4.2 Identifying the Theme Choice………... 56

3.4.3 Identifying the Thematic Progression Pattern………... 56

3.4.4 Deciding the Theme and Thematic Progression Trends………... 57

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3.5 Limitations of the Study………... 57

3.6 Concluding Remark………...…...58

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS59 4.1 The Themes and Thematic Progression Patterns Realized in Students' Analytical Exposition Texts………... 60

4.1.1 The Themes Realized in Students' Analytical Exposition Texts60 4.1.1.1 Topical Themes……….………...60

4.1.1.1.1 Theme Markedness…………...…………...64

4.1.1.2 Interpersonal Themes………...……...68

4.1.1.3 Textual Themes………...…...72

4.1.1.4 Trends in the Use of Themes in Students' Analytical Exposition Texts………... 75

4.1.2 The Thematic Progression Patterns Realized in Students' Analytical Exposition Texts………...………...77

4.1.2.1 Theme Reiteration Pattern………...……...78

4.1.2.2 Zig Zag Pattern………...………...83

4.1.2.3 Multiple Theme Pattern………...88

4.1.2.4 Trends in the Use of Thematic Progression………... 93

4.1.2.5 Overall Realization of the Theme System………...95

4.2 Contribution of the Theme and Theatic Progression to the Nature of Analytical Exposition Texts………...……...97

4.2.1 Theme Choice and the Nature of the Texts………...97

4.2.2 Topical Theme and the Nature of the Texts………...99

4.2.3 Theme Markedness and the Nature of the Texts………...101

4.2.4 Thematic Progressions and the Nature of the Texts………...103

4.3 Concluding Remark………....104

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATION..…..…105

5.1 Conclusions………...105

5.2 Recommendations………...107

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the background of the study. A brief explanation on the

issue and aspects related to the discussion are also included.

1.1 Rationale

As one of the productive skills of language (see Nation, 1994; Davies, 2011),

writing is now widely used to express ideas by everyone through any media. The

importance of writing needs to be realized by people nowadays since information

recently are available in pieces of texts as can be found in newspapers, magazines

and even internet. Writing has preferably chosen recently since it is not difficult to

post in social media and it can reach society easily. As writing can be found

almost everywhere it appears as if people are bound to writing because, in fact, “humanity relies on writing to an unprecedented extent” (Coulmas, 2003: 1) since through writing “we record, convey, and communicate ideas appears in our mind” (Rodgers, 2005).

However, writing is not as easy as it seems for it is generally recognized as

a difficult task by ESL and EFL students (Rosa, 2007; Priyatmojo, 2011),

especially in Indonesia, and it makes them tend to be not productive in writing

(Alwasilah & Alwasilah, 2005). The reason for this is that for being capable to

convey their ideas accurately and smoothly to the readers, the students need to

consider carefully the aspects of good writing. One aspect that plays an important

role in writing is the coherence (Wang, 2007; Suraishkumar, 2013). Halliday (1994: 309) defines coherence in writing as “the internal [resource] for structuring the clause as a message”. To help the students organize information within clause to make their writing coherent, the use of Theme and Thematic Progression is

determining (Halliday & Hasan, 1976; Belmonte & McCabe, 1998).

Focusing the students’ writing on the Theme system, including thematic

progression, will be very useful in helping students to communicate their ideas

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successfully (Wang, 2007). Theme system assists the students “to specify the place in the reader network of meaning where the meaning is to be incorporated as relevant” (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004: 19). Furthermore, Theme is the “point of departure for the message” (Halliday, 1994: 37; Eggins, 2004: 296) which determines the concern of a clause; what a clause is about. The Theme then becomes the prominent element for standing as the “grammatical system that organizes the clause in such a way that it helps to construct the environment” (Emilia, 2014: 225) and for providing the environment for the remainder of the

message, which is known as the Rheme, in the Theme-Rheme organization

(Halliday, 1994).

Many researchers throughout the world have conducted studies on Theme

and thematic progression in different field of knowledge, such as translation

(Wang, 2014). Research on Theme and thematic progression also have been done

in various genres of texts, such as argumentative (Banks, 2008; Al Bakaa, 2014),

explanatory (Yang, 2008), narrative (Safitra, 2013), and report (Ikaningrum,

2009). Not only in those types of texts commonly found in classrooms, analysis

on Theme and thematic progression have also been conducted even in letters

(Lianawati, 2008; Humanis, 2014) and research abstracts (Soepriatmadji, 2009;

Albogobeish and Sedghi, 2014).

Studies concerning the analysis of Theme and thematic progression in

exposition texts written by EFL and ESL students in some countries have been

conducted, including China (Xu, 2000), Sweden (Herriman, 2011) and Indonesia

(Rakhman, 2013). A research on Theme and thematic progression in exposition

texts written by English Education program students in the research site (Bangga,

2013) has been conducted as well. However, studies dealing with the analysis of

Theme and thematic progression in English Education program students’

analytical exposition texts are hardly discovered. As the students majoring this

program are expected to be teachers in the future, they are expected to be able to

write good analytical exposition texts as well as to teach their students how to

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the students how to make good writings, the knowledge of Theme and thematic

progression is required. Theme and thematic progression in texts is important to

be investigated as their existence in texts becomes one of the characteristics of

good texts. Thus, this study tries to fulfill the gap of analyzing the students’

analytical texts in terms of its textual organization using Theme-Rheme and

thematic progression of Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL), realizing that the

knowledge of the Theme system can help learners to organize ideas more

effectively in writing (Emilia, 2014: 247) in their efforts to make good texts in

order to achieve the purpose of the texts. This study is part of a bigger study

conducted by Emilia, et al. (2014) dealing with the implementation of Genre

Based Approach in teaching writing (see also Emilia, 2011), in which their data

are taken to be analyzed in this study in terms of Theme and thematic progression.

Hence, other aspects which consist in the texts other than the Theme and thematic

progression cannot be further discussed.

1.2 Research Questions

This study attempts to answer the research questions formulated as follows:

1. What Themes and thematic progression patterns are realized in students’

analytical exposition texts?

2. To what extent does the realization of Theme and thematic progression

support the nature of analytical exposition texts?

1. 3 Scope of the Study

This study concerns the analysis of English Education study program students in

one of the public universities in Bandung in terms of its thematic structures and

the textual organization.

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The result of this study is expected to have a significant impact to some areas,

such as theory and practice. In terms of theory, this study would verify the

previous findings in Theme system and thematic progression analysis and it could

also develop studies in Systemic Functional Grammar, particularly in Theme

system and thematic progression analysis.

In terms of practice, this study is expected to provide information for

teachers to broaden their knowledge of textual organization of exposition texts.

This study would give views on teaching expository genre, especially in applying

Theme choice and in developing paragraphs in order to make a cohesive writing.

Besides, information in this study is hoped to be useful for other researchers as a

reference to conduct other research related to this topic.

1.5 Operational Definition

a) Systemic Functional Linguistics is a theory of linguistics which concerns

language of a source of making-meaning process rather than a set of

grammatical rules (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004; Eggins, 2004; Bloor &

Bloor, 2004; Emilia, 2005; 2014; Downing & Locke, 2006).

b) Theme is the “the element which serves as the point of departure of the message; it is that which locates and orients the clause within its context” (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004: 64).

c) Thematic progression is the choice of Theme to which support the text to

develop the ideas they present (Fries, 1995a; 1995b; Eggins, 2004).

d) Analytical exposition text is a text arguing a certain point of view of an issue

to persuade the reader that something is the case (Gerot & Wignell, 1994).

e) The features of analytical exposition text, some of those cover the focus on

generic human and non-human participants, the use of simple present tense,

use relational processes, use internal conjunction to stage argument, and

causal conjunction or nominalization (Gerot & Wignell, 1994).

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This paper is organized into five chapters. The first chapter is introduction which

gives the reader an overview to the study by highlighting the background of the

study, the objectives of the study, the significance of the study, some operational

definition as the clarification of terms, and organization of the paper. The second

chapter is theoretical framework which elaborates the theories relevant to this

study, covering the theories of Systemic Functional Linguistics, Theme system,

thematic progression, expository text, and some research related to the analysis of

Theme system and thematic progression of texts. The third chapter is research

method which provides explanations of the research design, data collection, and

data analysis. The fourth chapter is data analysis which chapter presents the

findings and some discussion of this study. The fifth or the last chapter is

conclusion which concludes this study and closes it with some recommendations

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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter focuses on the methodological aspects of this study, covering four

main aspects: research design, site and participants, data collection, and data

analysis. Research design elaborates the method employed in this study. Site and

participants explains about the site where the research takes place and the

participants involved in this study. The data collection section presents the data

types and the data collection techniques. The data analysis elaborates the

procedure of analyzing the data. Also, limitations of the study are inserted in this

chapter as this research may not fulfill every expectation of the readers’.

3.1 Research Design

This study employs a descriptive-qualitative design, embracing the characteristics

of a case study approach. This approach is used for it provides an intensive,

holistic description and analysis of single entity (the bounded system, the case)

(Merriam, 1988 in Duff, 2008). A descriptive-qualitative design is considered

appropriate since the study was carried out in a natural setting (see Frankel &

Wallen, 1990; McMillan, 1992; Adanza, 1995; Silverman, 2005; Alwasilah, 2008)

and since the primary purpose of this study is to analyze, describe, and interpret

data to recognize how the schematic structure and textual organization of

university students’ exposition texts in as small scale/case (see Creswell, 2003; 2009; 2012; Sandelowski, 2000). The Theme and thematic progression analysis is

chosen because it is one of many “linguistics approach that have been well developed in the area of education” (Freebody, 2003 as cited in Emilia, 2005: 75).

3.2 Site and Participants

As aforementioned in the background of the study, this study is part of a bigger

study conducted by Emilia, et al. (2014) in which the data of that study are taken

to be analyzed in this study in terms of the Theme and thematic progression.

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Emilia, et al. (2014) conducted their study in one of the state universities in

Bandung. The data of that study are taken to be analyzed in this study for at least

two reasons. Firstly, the situations and contexts are familiar to the researcher is of

the students in the university in which this is expected to give more feasibility to

the researcher to do the research. Secondly, the participants in this study are

expected to be English teachers after finishing their tertiary level study in this

department. Thus, they should have alertness in their own writing before teaching

their students in the future.

The participants of the study are a class of students taking writing course

in the fourth semester. They were chosen purposively in order to develop an

in-depth understanding related to the topic. The students’ texts are categorized into

three representing all levels of achievements: low achiever texts, middle achiever

texts, and high achiever texts. The classifications were derived from the scores

they got for their analytical exposition texts given by their lecturer.

3.3 Data Collection

A total of nine texts were chosen specifically to be analyzed using Theme and

Thematic progression analysis of SFL to find out their textual organization and

the most occurrence Theme and thematic pattern of those texts. The texts are from

three levels of achievement: low, middle, and high achiever. All those texts are

students’ final drafts of analytical exposition texts, taken from the study by Emilia, et al. (2014).

3.4 Data Analysis

The nine chosen students’ analytical exposition texts were then read and later

segmented into clauses and identified in terms of Theme selections, as the basis of

identifying thematic progression pattern. The data analysis in this consists of five

steps: reading the text, identifying the Theme choice, identifying the thematic

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implications of Theme and thematic progression on the nature of analytical

exposition texts written by the students.

3.4.1 Reading the texts

Before analyzing the texts, the very first thing to do was to read the text critically.

This step aims at examining features running throughout the texts, and also

examining what the texts do to convey the meaning: how patterns of content and

language shape the portrayal of the topic and how relationships between those

patterns convey underlying meaning.

3.4.2 Identifying the Theme Choice

This step aims at investigating how the students organized the ideas textually in

their texts. Each of the students’ analytical exposition texts was broken down into

clauses which are actually “slightly larger than the clause, but smaller than the sentence” consisting of “an independent clause together with all hypotactically

related clauses and words that are dependent on that independent clause” (see

Fries, 1995b: 49). The advantage of analyzing the clauses this way is that “it

allows analysts to take into account whether a dependent adverbial clause has

been placed in initial position in the Theme or later in the Rheme (Herriman,

2011: 3). This would be missed if the analysis was carried out merely in the level

of single clause. Then the Theme choices was identified based on the works of

Halliday (1994), Halliday & Matthiessen (2004), and Eggins (2004) in terms of

textual, interpersonal, and topical Theme. Topical Theme will further be analyzed

whether it is marked or unmarked. This step is undertaken as an effort to answer

the first research question dealing with the Themes and thematic progressions

relized in students’ analytical exposition texts.

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The identification of thematic progression pattern aims at revealing how the

students maintain the logical relation of the texts (see Knapp &Watkins, 2005;

Schleppegrell, 2004; 2006). The analysis was based on the works of Fries (1995a;

1995b), Eggins (1994; 2004), and Bloor & Bloor (2004) in terms of the three

thematic progression patterns: the Theme Reiteration pattern, the Zig-Zag pattern,

and the Multiple Theme pattern. The undertaking of this step is still as an effort to

answer the first research question regarding the Themes and thematic progression

patterns realized in students’ analytical exposition texts.

3.4.4 Deciding the Theme and Thematic Progression Trends

In this step, all the Theme and thematic progressions that occur in the analyzed

texts were summed up to find out and to generalize the Theme and thematic

progression trends that mostly occur in students’ analytical exposition texts. The interpretation of the result of this step is necessary to see whether the Theme and

thematic progression trends suits the Theme and thematic progression generally

used in common analytical exposition texts. This result of this step is to provide

further explanation on the first research question regarding the Themes and

thematic progression patterns in students’ analytical exposition texts.

3.4.5 Revealing the Implications of the Theme and Thematic Progression to

the Nature of Analytical Exposition Texts

In this step, the researcher tries to find out the implications of the Theme and

thematic progression patterns in supporting the nature of analytical exposition

texts written by the students. The researcher tries to identify the contribution that

each of Theme choices and thematic progression patterns gives in order to make a

good analytical exposition text. This step is as a search for the answer of the

second research question about to what extent the realization of Theme and

thematic progression support the nature of analytical exposition texts.

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This study has its own limitations concerning some aspects. Firstly, the analysis of

the texts in this study takes only the perspective of Theme and thematic

progression pattern. In fact, the criteria of a good text is not merely determined by

the textual metafunction, but also the experiential metafunction (Transitivity

analysis) and also the interpersonal metafunction (Mood and Modality analysis),

which are not discussed in detailed in this study. Secondly, this is a case study

which cannot be generalizable. If other researchers are to conduct the same study

with different participants’ background, or different level of education of the

participants, the results may be different as well. Finally, this study is very

subjective as it relies on the writer’s own limited capacity.

3.6 Concluding Remark

This chapter presents the methodological aspects which have been applied in this

study covering the research design, site and participants, data collection, data

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter presents the conclusions and recommendations of the study. The

conclusions section wraps up the study and summarizes all the final findings. The

recommendations section provides the suggestions for further research, generally

in text analysis using SFL, particularly in investigating the Theme and thematic

progression. Besides, the recommendations are also directed to the teachers and

students, intending for the improvement of teaching and learning writing.

5.1 Conclusions

This section aims to answer the research questions proposed in Chapter I of this

study. The first research question deals with the types of Themes and thematic

progression patterns realized in students’ analytical exposition texts. The second

research question concerns the implications of Theme and thematic progression in

supporting the nature of analytical exposition texts.

Based on the findings of Theme and thematic progression analysis, several

conclusions can be drawn from the study. In terms of the Theme system, it is

found that there are three types of Theme employed by the students, i.e. the

Topical Themes, Interpersonal Themes, and Textual Themes. The Topical Theme

includes the marked and unmarked Themes, the Interpersonal Theme involves the

use of unfused finites, mood adjuncts, and comment adjuncts, while the Textual

Theme applied in students’ texts consists of tactic conjunctions and cohesive conjunctions. The Topical Theme appears to be the predominating Theme type

which are implemented in students’ analytical exposition texts. It occurs 481

times (67.27%) in students’ texts. This findings indicates the students are aware of what element to be put in the initial position, and that they are able to signpost

where the information comes from and where it leads to. After the Topical Theme,

the Textual Theme is apparently found in a high proportion in the students’

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analytical exposition texts. It happens 213 times (29.79%) in students’ texts. This

signals the students’ ability in maintaining the logical relation of arguments to

make their texts cohesive and coherent. The least frequent Theme is the

Interpersonal Theme. It appears only 21 times (2.94%) in students’ analytical

exposition texts, signifies that the students have the knowledge of using the

modulation and the modalisation sufficiently; only for stating their positions in the

texts, without further using them repeatedly in their writings.

Regarding the thematic progression pattern, it is found that there are also

three types of thematic progression pattern used by the students in composing

their analytical exposition texts: the Theme Reiteration pattern, the Zig Zag

pattern, and the Multiple Theme pattern. From the three, the Zig Zag pattern

dominates thematic progression pattern in the students’ texts, with the number of

occurrence 92 times (47.21%). The Zig Zag pattern happens only in the clause

level in students’ texts. This shows the students’ ability in developing the

cohesion of their texts. Following the Zig Zag pattern, the Theme Reiteration

pattern occurs also with the high number of occurrence in students’ analytical

exposition texts. Making a very slight difference of proportion from the Zig Zag

pattern in students’ texts, it occurs 90 times (45.68%) in the texts. This pattern also happens merely in the clause level in the texts. This indicates that students are

able to keep the texts focused by repeating the same Theme consecutively in some

clauses. The last type of thematic progression pattern implemented in students’

analytical exposition texts is the Multiple Theme pattern. It has the least

proportion in the texts, with the number of occurrence 14 times (7.11%). This

pattern happens both in the paragraph level and in the text level in the students’

texts. The application of this pattern means that the students have the knowledge

to signposts their primary arguments in their texts. The implementation of

Multiple Theme pattern is a criteria of highly academic writing, which leads to the

deduction that the students have been able to make good writerly texts. Thus, the

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al. (2014) is proven successful in terms of the use of Theme and thematic

progression in students’ analytical exposition texts.

Dealing with the implications of the Theme and thematic progression in

supporting the nature of analytical exposition texts, it is found that both the

Theme and thematic progression do support the nature of analytical exposition

texts that the students create to some extent. In terms of the Theme system, all the

three types of Theme contributes the nature of this genre. The Topical Theme

represents the generalized participants (either human or non-human) as one of the

linguistic features of analytical exposition. The Interpersonal Theme plays the role

of stating the student writers’ position in their writings. In analytical exposition, it is crucial for the writers to state their point of view before displaying their

arguments, therefore the Interpersonal Theme is required. The Textual Theme

have the duties of building cohesion and coherence in the texts generally, and also

linking the logical steps of arguments in the analytical exposition texts

particularly. In terms of thematic progression, all three patterns also support the

nature of analytical exposition texts. The Theme Reiteration pattern helps the

students maintain the focus of issues being argued, yet it provides ease to the

students to elaborate the issues in the texts. The Zig Zag pattern enhances the

arguments in students’ writings, particularly in the relation of causality. In the meantime, the Multiple Theme pattern helps students to signpost the main

arguments in their texts.

5.2 Recommendations

There are several recommendations proposed from the findings of this study,

concerning the teaching and learning of writing in educational settings. For

English teachers, it is required that teachers teach their students to write texts

using the thematic progression pattern to develop the cohesion of the texts,

because it improves the flow of the students’ texts, and “the quality of writing can

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awareness of text organization towards the thematic progression patterns. Also, it

is highly suggested for the teachers to teach SFL (all the three metafunctions) to

the students in order to be able to make a perfect writing. For students, it is

important to be conscious that if they want to convey information effectively and

successfully and write a cohesive composition, “they ought to focus on the theme

system because it is crucial, and has an immediate impact on writing” (Ebrahimi

& Khedri, 2012). The theme system enable students to organize their own writing

effectively, and it may prove a useful tool when students need to write longer texts

such as essays and reports. Besides, the students are suggested to better manage

their information particularly in writing to achieve the communicative goal

effectively through the thematic organization.

It is also recommended that further researcher to investigate the Theme

and thematic progression in other genres of texts such as descriptive, explanation,

etc. written by different levels of students. Also, researchers can develop the

insight beyond the Theme and thematic progression in analyzing the text. They

can further analyze the text by applying cohesion analysis to find the texture of

the text or by applying mood system and transitivity analysis along with the

Theme system analysis to specify a more detailed structure of the text seen

respectively from the ideational, interpersonal, and textual meaning. Finally, the

result of this study is expected to provide another perspective of Theme and

thematic progression analysis, particularly on the educational context of teaching

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