Thematic Progression in EFL Learners’ Writing: A Literature Review

Abstract

By examining relevant research articles published in reputable journals or conference proceedings in 2013-2020, the literature review article attempted to shed light on the areas: (1) contributions of thematic progression to the coherence and cohesion quality of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners’ writing, (2) EFL learners’ problems regarding thematic progression in their writing, and (3) research on pedagogical implications of thematic progression on teaching writing. While there have been extensive studies on thematic progression, it remained intriguing to investigate the extent to which this topic had been explored by scholars, particularly in the context of English as a foreign language. The previous studies had consistently confirmed the following results: (1) thematic progression contributes to the coherence and cohesion quality of EFL learners’ writing, (2) problematic thematic progression in EFL learners’ writing included the emergence of the brand new theme, double rheme, empty rheme, empty theme, overuse of constant theme pattern, overwhelming selection of textual theme, and (3) some studies evidenced good results of integrating thematic progression in teaching writing. The research suggests that further research develops a more detailed and systematic procedure of teaching thematic progression in a specific EFL teaching-learning context by integrating thematic progression theory with English language teaching materials. Furthermore, the research calls for more experimental research on teaching thematic progression to determine the significance of this method in enhancing students’ writing quality.

Thematic Construction in the News Coverage of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Pattern and Its Implication in Teaching English News-Item Text

“…Multiple Theme as part of Theme helps provide a sense of coherence and unity to the text (Fitriati & Gayatri, 2021;Khedri & Ebrahimi, 2012;Triyana et al, 2018). By providing background information and context, multiple Theme helps to connect different parts of the story and to create a more coherent reading experience.…”

Comparative Study of Thematic Choice and Progression on Text Written by Humans and AI Machine

“…They conclude that the Persian learners show a lack of knowledge regarding the grammatical choices they made in their thematic structure. Research by Fitriati & Gayatri (2021) investigates text coherence using case studies. The results of this investigation show that students still face difficulties in achieving coherence because they do not maximize the use of cohesive devices, especially conjunctions to connect sentences.…”

The Realization of Thematic Progression in Background of Study Section Written by Undergraduate Students at Tidar University

“…Meanwhile, to maintain the continuity and information flow of the text, thematic progression is essential in writing due to its role in maintaining the continuity and information flow of the text. In other words, thematic progression highly contributes to the cohesion and coherence of a text (Fitriati 2021). Additionally, thematic progression is required to assist in the development of cohesive texts and to maintain the continuity and flow of text information in order to produce coherent texts.…”