Analysis of Theme and Thematic Progression in Expository Texts

Abstract

Effective lesson planning and execution are ensured by deep text interpretation. The New English Curriculum reform currently places greater demands on students’ ability to read at a deep level, which raises the bar for fully evaluating the arrangement and structure of textual content. The focus of modern text linguistics, the theme-rheme theory and thematic progression pattern, play a significant role in interpreting textual composition and internal information structure of a discourse. Therefore, in order to increase the explanatory power in textual analysis, this study tries to apply theme-rheme theory and thematic progression to analyze the textual organization characteristics of expositions in National College Entrance Examination(NCEE) Volume A reading materials. Finally, this study gives the front-line teachers some reference based on the findings in order to improve their text interpretation, reading, and writing instruction, which will ultimately support effective teaching design and implementation.