Continuation Writing Texts:An Analytical Study In High School From Theme-rheme Theory

The Continuation Writing Task(CW),initially proposed by Professor Wang as a method to enhance the foreign language learning efficiency of students,has been incorporated into the new type of English questions in Gao Kao after its effectiveness was demonstrated.However,existing researches on high school students’ CW have found that some students’ output writings still suffer from problems such as poor logic,weak coherence,and low communicative efficiency.The Theme-Rheme theory is a rhetorical theory that emphasizes the relationship between the Theme and Rheme in a text.The Thematic Progression(TP)patterns are application of this theory,which effectively advances the development of discourse and the exposition of viewpoints by embedding Rheme in Theme of a particular text and gradually expanding upon them.Due to its characteristics of accurately revealing the logical relationship between the Theme and Rheme,as well as logical gaps and deficiencies,this theory has been widely used in the field of text analysis and has become a universal thinking tool applied in education over time.Guided by Theme-Rheme theory,this thesis analyzed and examined 70 CW texts from two exams of 35 senior one students in a key senior high school in Hubei through content analysis,as well as five students’ interviews.Firstly,content analysis is used to identify,code and count Thematic types and TP patterns in the collected texts,which are then statistically analyzed using SPSS 26.0.It investigated the relationship between students’ scores and amounts of Thematic types and TP patterns used in CW,and whether there were significant differences between students’ score levels in these areas.Furthermore,interviews are conducted with five students,and the transcripts are analyzed to explore the reasons for these differences.After that,suggestions are made to improve the logic and coherence of students’ CW texts.Three research questions are addressed:1.Do the amounts of different Thematic types used in CW have effects on the composition scores? If yes,what are the effects?2.Do the amounts of different TP patterns used in CW have effects on the composition scores? If yes,what are the effects?3.If these effects indeed exist,what are the possible reasons?The findings are as follows:1.The amounts of different Thematic types DO affect students’ scores.Quantitative analysis showed that there were significant positive relationships between students’ scores and the amounts of Multiple Theme,Clausal Theme and Total Themes:the higher the amounts,the higher the score.The case of the Multiple Theme is more complex: Students’ scores were positively correlated with the amounts of Textual Theme but not with the amounts of Topical Theme,which is the essential component of Multiple Theme.2.The amounts of total TP patterns DO affect students’ scores.And quantitative analysis showed that there was only a significant positive relationship between students’ scores and the total amounts of TP patterns,which means that the higher the total amounts of TP patterns,the higher the students’ scores.3.There are three factors that influence students’ scores: the capability differences in the use of Thematic Types;the capability differences in the use of TP patterns;and the capability differences in the use of complex sentences.Based on these findings,the author suggested four ways to apply Theme-Rheme theory and TP patterns to CW: 1)Emphasizing the original text of CW;2)Increasing the frequency of using Multiple Theme and Clausal Theme;3)Utilizing various TP patterns;and 4)Paying more attention to evaluation and feedback.However,given the limited number of subjects,this study is only a preliminary exploration of the analysis of students’ CW texts using Theme-Rheme Theory and TP patterns.Further validation and support from more in-depth analytical studies are required to justify its validity.