Methods to Identify Topic Sentences in Paragraphs in TESOL

Abstract

In current Chinese TOESOL education, many university students put more efforts on words recitation, but taking little attention of the logical structuring of a text. Therefore, the necessity of topic sentence is of great importance. As it portrays the subject and focus of paragraphs. Problems puzzle many Chinese English teachers are that: first, what is a topic sentence? How to identify the topic sentence? Can a topic sentence be positioned in the end of a paragraph? If not, what is it? Qualitative analysis tells us that first, a topic sentence can be in the initial and medial position of a paragraph; second, the last sentence of a paragraph often acts the role of concluding sentence; third, the last sentence in the introduction usually is thesis statement of the text; last, the topic sentence doesn't appear at the end of the paragraph.