not only acts as a connection whi
ch links the relationship of the clause within the text but also
provides more explicit guidance to the reader on how to obtain a coherent interpretation of
the text, this may result in finding it more frequently than the interpersonal element. This
findin
g appears to support the study of
Martin &
Rose
(2003). He explains that conjunctions
are important to connect steps in arguments. Also they are mostly used in the exposition
genre because they link logical steps of arguments in the whole text.
In the cas
e of the simple and multiple Themes, the multiple Themes outweigh the simple
Themes. This finding
is inconsistent with Coffin &
Hewings’s (2005) study. This could be
due to the fact that, an exposition needs to make a point and to persuade the readers to a
gree
with it. The writers must engage the readers and their emotions to enhance the readers’
solidarity with their points of view. One interesting way to grab readers’ attentions is to
ensure continuity in the texts by using internal conjunctions and exter
nal conjunctions.
Within this study, internal conjunctions are used to join ideas within the same sentence while
external conjunctions are used to link ideas between different sentences. Therefore, the
writers used multiple Theme by adding textual Theme an
d interpersonal Theme to topical
Theme to create connectedness in the text. As a result, it provides the writers with an
effective way to convey information circulated in the written text.
Analyzing the data in light of marked and unmarked Themes, the r
esult reveals that the
number of unmarked Themes by far outweighs the number of marked Themes. This is in line
with Halliday (1994). He partially explained that the unmarked Theme is used in text if there
is no prior context leading up to it, and no positi
ve reasons for choosing anything else. As
novice writers, students have difficulty in composing their texts. The simplest way of
constructing English sentences is to put either nominal group or pronoun in subject position
to make sure that the sentence is
grammatically correct.
Regarding Thematic progression pattern, three patterns proposed by Paltridge (2000) were
found in the texts. The multiple Theme or split Rheme pattern was used at the most
frequently. This indicates that the multiple Theme or split
Rheme patterns are dominant in the
texts. Consequently, the use of the multiple Theme or split Rheme patterns is one of the
characteristic features of writing exposition that tries to convince the readers to align with the
writers’ points of view. This pa
rallels the study of Danes
(
1974
,
cited in Nwogu & Blor
,
1991
). Split Rheme is the basic pattern of Themes in exposition.
Additionally, the analysis showed that the texts which lack Thematic progression encounter
many kinds of problems. The problems wer
e the problem of empty Theme, the problem of
the brand new Theme, the problem of overuse of constant progression, the problem of empty
Rheme, and the problem of confusing selection of textual Theme. This finding appears to
support the study of Wang (2007).
He concluded that students’ weaknesses in their arguments
are due to problems with either Thematic progression or Thematic selection, or both.
There are limitations to this study. The raw material for this analysis was small as there were
only 114 texts. It was limited in size and scope. Besides, grammatical errors contributed to
the problems of understanding the whole texts thoroughly due to the
students’ lack of
knowledge of English.
In terms of the implications of the study, perhaps the real strength lies in the way these
findings indicate two further areas for exploration.
The first area for further exploration is the
teaching English as a
foreign language. As the current study attempts to rev