Warangkana Vanta. An investigation of thematic progression patterns in reading comprehension of the IELTS. Master's Degree(Applied Linguistics). Mahidol University. Mahidol University Library and Knowledge Center. : Mahidol University, 2020.
An investigation of thematic progression patterns in reading comprehension of the IELTS
Abstract:
Grounded on the framework of the systemic functional grammar of Theme-Rheme analysis (Thompson, 2004) and the model of thematic progression (Dane?, 1974), this study was conducted to investigate the frequencies of thematic progression types (e.g., Linear, Constant, or Derived) in the IELTS academic and IELTS general training reading comprehension texts in an effort to further understanding of the structure of reading texts in one of the world-renowned standardized tests. The study recruited overall 60 IELTS reading comprehension practice texts, 30 from academic and 30 from general training schemes. The texts, then, were categorized into three thematic progression types. The findings revealed that the most frequently used thematic progression was the Derived type. Another considerable finding was that there was less frequency of Derived thematic progression in the general training than the academic reading comprehension texts. Moreover, there were some common elements in textual construction. The element allocation is a significant factor to differentiate the texts.