Endang Susilowati, 0203518064 (2022) THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEMATIC STRUCTURE AND THEMATIC PROGRESSION IN RESEARCH ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN SCOPUS-INDEXED INTERNATIONAL JOURNALS. Masters thesis, UNNES.

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Abstract

Publishing in a highly-indexed or reputable journal is greatly competitive, thus writing a qualified and eligible text becomes more challenging for a second/foreign language writer of English. A good text should be written logically and organized effectively according to the role of good academic writing. Thematic structure and thematic progression play a pivotal role to create a comprehensive text in terms of cohesion and coherence. This thesis reports on a study that aims at examining the use of thematic structure and thematic progression in research articles published in Q1 and Q2 Scopus-indexed international journals as well as their relationship in achieving the texts’ coherence. This is a descriptive qualitative study in the scope of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) that employs discourse analysis. The data of this study were derived from all sections of ten research articles analyzed by using Halliday and Matthiessen’s (2014) framework of thematic structure and Eggins’s (2004) taxonomy of thematic progression. This study highlights three major findings. Firstly, in terms of the thematic structure, the textual theme is used massively in the texts, followed by the topical and interpersonal theme. The predominance of the textual theme detects the authors’ ability to develop the logical relationship between clauses. Secondly, in terms of the thematic progression, the theme reiteration pattern is employed frequently, followed by the multiple-rheme and the zig-zag pattern. The tremendous use of the theme reiteration indicates the authors’ ability to maintain the focus of the texts by repeating the thematic constituent of the preceding clause in the subsequent clause. Thirdly, the relationship between thematic structure and thematic progression achieve the texts’ coherence by constructing logical connections between the clauses. The logical relationships were created through linking devices, but some of the relationships were also expressed implicitly, without any linking devices. Finally, this study contributes a novelty to the relevant research and provides some pedagogical implications for the teaching of English as a foreign language.

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