THEME-RHEME IN EFL LEARNERS RECOUNT TEXT

A Case Study
by :
Fitria Dewi

A. Research Backround

Many people have the mistaken idea that being able to write well is a talent
that one either has or doesn’t have. This idea is not necessarily true. We can learn to
write effectively if we are willing to learn some strategies and practice them. To get a
good writing in accordance with the rule takes a long time and hard work that combines
comprehension while reading and set forth in writing.

Good writing in English requires the ability to write good sentences and to
organize them ogically into paragraphs and essays. Parts of communication skills
according to Brown (2001) are listening, speaking, reading and writing. The skills can
be categorized in two, receptive and productive. Listening and reading are considered
as receptive skills, while speaking and writing are part of productive skills. One of the
principles for language teaching methodology, as stated in Nunan (2003) is focusing
on the learners. It means that it is necessary to maximize the class time for the learners,
rather than for the teacher, to do the work, e.g. to write.

Writing seems to be the most difficult subject for many students. It is a work
of inventing ideas, thinking about how to express the ideas and organizing them into
sentences, into paragraphs that will be clear for the readers. In order to be able to write
effectively, the students should have sufficient knowledge of what to write and of how
to organize the language. Knowing what to write will enable the flow of ideas, whereas
knowing how to organize will help them convey the ideas in a clear way to the readers.

To produce good writing, it is necessary for the students to know how to

organize Theme and Rheme in their writing. Theme represents “ This is what I am
talking about”, while Rheme is “This is what I am talking about it”. The interaction of
Theme and Rheme governs how the information in a text develops. The Theme-and-
Rheme theory was first conceived in The Prague School, where Themes were

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 associated to the Given unit of information, and Rheme to the New (ibid). While
‘Given’ refers to the previously-mentioned, or the un-newsworthy, ‘New’ reveals new
information or what is deemed newsworthy, and is often indicated by the placement
of the tonic nucleus. Given+New makes up the information structure of the clause. Not
(1996: 4) says that thematic development is necessary for the construction of an
optimally coherent and grammatically cohesive structured text.

This research tries to investigate the paragraphs written by the English learners.
The purpose is to know which thematic development pattern is mostly applied in their
paragraphs. Based on the background above, the problem of this research can be
formulated as follows: “Which thematic development pattern is mostly employed in
the learners’ texts?” Texts here refer to the learners’ paragraphs. Derived from this
research question, in general the study investigates the kind of thematic development
pattern employed in the paragraphs written by the English learners. Specifically, the
study is aimed at analyzing: 1) the themes and rhemes of the students’ writing, 2) the
thematic development pattern they employ in developing their writing.

The current study is expected to give contributions in the development of

linguistic studies. The study may provide English teachers with beneficial information
about the thematic development patterns that underlie the English paragraphs written
by the English learners. This information may be taken into consideration for
developing English teaching materials to Indonesian learners studying English,
especially for teaching paragraph-based writing.

B. Focus Study

In every research, it is obligatory for the researcher to provide the theoretical

framework on the basis of which the data under study can be analyzed in order to come
up with the research findings pertinent to the research questions that have been
formulated. Below is the theoretical framework employed in the study.

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1. Paragraph

A paragraph is a group of sentences that works together to develop a main idea. A

paragraph can be short or long. The number of sentences in a paragraph is unimportant;
however, the paragraph should be long enough to develop the main idea clearly. A
paragraph may stand by itself and may also be one part of a longer piece of writing such
as an essay. Paragraphs have a very specific organizational pattern. It means that all
paragraphs are put together in a similar way.

A paragraph has three major structural parts: a topic sentence, supporting

sentences, and a concluding sentence. The topic sentence states the main idea of the
paragraph. It not only names the topic of the paragraph, but it also limits the topic to one
or two areas that can be discussed completely in the space of a single paragraph. It also
tells the audience about the purpose of the paragraph. That is, the topic sentence tells the
audience what ideas to expect in the paragraph.

A good topic sentence has two parts: the topic or theme and the controlling idea
or rheme. The topic or theme is the subject of the paragraph. It is what we are writing
about. The controlling idea or rheme limits the topic of our paragraph to the aspect of
the topic that we want to explore in our paragraph. Supporting sentences develop the
topic sentence. That is, they explain the topic sentence by giving reasons, examples,
facts, statistics, quotations, etc. (Oshima, et.al., 1999: 17). In terms of organization, there
are two types of supporting sentences: major supporting sentences and minor supporting
sentences.

The major supporting sentences are the main details that tell us about the topic
sentence. The minor supporting sentences tell us more about the major supporting
sentences. The concluding sentence of a paragraph signals the end of the paragraph and
leaves the reader with important points to remember. A concluding sentence serves
three purposes as follows: 1) it signals the end of the paragraph, 2) it summarizes the
main points of the paragraph, 3) it gives the final comment on the topic and leaves the
reader with the most important ideas to think about.

Good paragraphs and essays have some characteristics in common. They are
coherence, cohesion, unity, completeness. Halliday and Hasan (1976: 23) say that

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coherence refers to the way a group of clauses or sentences relate to the context. A text
is cohered when one part of a text (a clause, a sentence or a turn at a talk) follows another
part of a text (the next clause, sentence or turn at a talk).

The outcome of this is that each part of the text creates the context within which
the next bit of the text is interpreted. Thus, there is relationship between what is said or
written and what was said or written a moment ago. Reid (2000: 116) says that coherence
means “to stick together” An essay is coherent if a) the parts of the essay are unified, b)
if the essay seems logical to the reader. From the statements above, it is clear that in
order to have coherence in writing, the sentences must hold together; that is, the
movement from one sentence to the next ( and in longer essays, from one paragraph to
the next) must be logical and smooth. Each sentence should flow smoothly into the next
one. Boardman (2002: 36) explains: when a paragraph has cohesion, all the supporting
sentences “stick together” in their support of the topic sentence.

The methods of connecting sentences to each other are called cohesive devices.
Other characteristics of a paragraph are unity and completeness. A paragraph has a unity
when all the supporting sentences relate to the topic sentence. And a paragraph is
complete when it has all the supporting sentences it needs to fully explain the topic
sentence and all the minor supporting sentences it needs to explain each major
supporting sentence.

2. Theme and Rheme

Any clause, any text is the realization of meanings or semantics. Halliday (1994,
16) argues that there are different kinds of meanings constructed in language. Thus, any
text is the realization of not just one meaning, but more than one kind of meaning. Eggins
(1994, 82) says that any text is the realization of three kinds of meanings, i.e. ideational,
interpersonal, and textual meanings which are called metafunction. Ideational meanings
are realized by transitivity structures.

Transitivity structures are the patterns of processes, participants, and

circumstances carried by the content words. By interpersonal meanings, we
communicate our feeling/attitude/intention. In grammar, it is laid in subject and finite.
By manipulating the subject and finite, we manipulate the mood, the interpersonal

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meaning, the intent. Finite carries a lot of burden of the mood of the clause. It carries (1)
primary tense, (2) positive and negative form, (3) modality, (4) agreement. Thus, by
mastering grammar, we will be able to convey our interpersonal meaning well.

Textual meanings are realized by theme pattern in a text. Theme is point of

departure (Martinet al., 1997: 21). The reiteration of theme choice expresses the textual
meaning being made in the text. Butt et al. (2001:114) states that theme is the starting
point or signpost for a speaker, and rheme is a temporary destination. Usually the bit of
the message that the writer or the speaker considers interesting or important comes in
the rheme. While the first clause or clause complex in a text will probably contain new
meanings, the thematic choices for the following clauses should not be unexpected. They
should be connected with ideas that we have already met in the theme or rheme of a
clause not too far before.

The theme of a clause can be realized as a nominal group, adverbial group or

prepositional phrase, and nominalization. Butt et al. (2001) divide theme into: (1)
Topical ( experiental) theme, i.e. the first element of the experiential meanings. It can be
participant, process, or circumstance. (2) Textual theme, i.e. the text-creating meanings
and is any combination of continuatives (yes, no, well, oh, now), conjunctions (and,
because, who) and conjunctive adjunct (for instance, in addition, likewise). (3)
Interpersonal theme, i.e. the first element of the clause which indicates an interaction
between speakers. This may include the finite in interrogative clauses where it precedes
the subject, vocatives (personal name used to address) and mood adjuncts (surprisingly,
in my opinion, fortunately).

C. Research Questions :

1. What are the types of thematic pattren in their writing ?

2. How students’ to organize Theme and Rheme in their writing ?

D. Aims of the Research