Developing theme and rheme in expository writing: A case study
Teaching writing to non-native speakers of English demands much more than appropriate sentence construction and grammar. Writing at the tertiary level involves thinking in the English way. The aim of this paper is to examine and identify the weaknesses of theme and rheme in the clause as message fol...
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| Format: | Book Section |
| Language: | English |
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Faculty of Communication and Modern Languages, Universiti Utara Malaysia
2007
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| Online Access: | http://repo.uum.edu.my/3255/1/E1.pdf http://repo.uum.edu.my/3255/ http://staf.uum.edu.my/tleia2/ |
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| Institution: | Universiti Utara Malaysia |
| Language: | English |
| Summary: | Teaching writing to non-native speakers of English demands much more than appropriate sentence construction and grammar. Writing at the tertiary level involves thinking in the English way. The aim of this paper is to examine and identify the weaknesses of theme and rheme in the clause as message following the tradition of Hallidayan linguistics. The research has identified the non-existence of theme, disguised theme and the lack of bond between the theme and rheme in a longitudinal case study. This action research proposes strategies in overcoming such weaknesses in language and thought. Among the strategies are the basic matching activity, the examination and analyses of academic texts and teaching the learner to monitor the theme and rheme from sentence to sentence and more importantly to focus on the theme. The results can be seen after six months when the learner is able to express himself/herself cohesively and meaningfully in discourse. |
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