AN ANALYSIS OF TEXTUAL METAFUNCTION IN THAI EFL STUDENTS' WRITING

Abstract

As teaching English as a foreign language, it has become obvious that an average Thai is considered to have very low English proficiency. As a result, Thailand may find herself at a disadvantage because of inferior English skills towards globalization and forming of ASEAN community. Thus, the study is devoted to the exploration of English writing skill which sets out to obtain some concrete information on the students’ problems in writing English supported by Systemic Functional Grammar. The result reveals that five problems of the Theme in terms of Theme selections and Thematic progression patterns were found: the problem of empty Theme, the problem of the brand new Theme, the problem of overuse of constant progression, the problem of empty Rheme, and the problem of confusing selection of textual Theme. It is hoped that the current study would be a contribution to the development of linguistic studies. This study will provide not only Thai EFL learners with a better understanding of problems in order to help them improve their writing performance, but will also provide Thai teachers with information that will help to develop English teaching materials and practical tools for Thai EFL learners, especially for teaching writing in EFL classroom.

Keywords

• Expository writing, Theme and Rheme analysis, Systemic Functional Grammar

AN ANALYSIS OF TEXTUAL METAFUNCTION IN THAI EFL STUDENTS' WRITING

Öz

İngilizceyi yabancı dil olarak öğretirken, ortalama bir Taylandlının çok düşük bir İngilizce seviyesine sahip olduğu açıkça görülmektedir. Düşük İngilizce becerilerinden ve Güneydoğu Asya Milletler Birliliği’nin bir parçası olduğundan dolayı Tayland dezavantajlı olmaktadır. Bu yüzden, bu çalışma öğrencilerin Sistemik İşlevsel Dil Bilgisi tarafından desteklenen İngilizce yazmadaki problemleri üzerine bazı bilgiler elde etmeyi amaçlayarak İngilizce yazmanin keşfine yönelmektedir. Özne seçimleri ve özne devamlılık ögeleri açısından sonuçlar öznelikle alakalı beş problemin bulunduğunu ortaya koymaktadır: öznenin olmaması problemi, daha once kullanılmamış yeni bir öznenin kullanılması problemi, özne devamlılığının aşırı kullanılması problemi, yüklemin olmaması problemi ve metinsel öznenin karmaşık seçimi problemi. Bu çalışmanın dilbilimsel çalışmaların gelişimine katkı sağlaması umulmaktadır. Bu araştırma, sadece İngilizce’yi yabancı dil olarak öğrenen Taylandlı öğrencilere kendilerinin yazma performanslarını geliştirmelerine yardımcı olmak için karşılaşılan problemlerin daha geniş kapsamlı bilgisini sunmakla kalmayacak, aynı zamanda Taylandlı öğretmenlere, özellikle de İngilizce’nin yabancı dil olarak öğretildiği sınıflarda yazma becerilerini öğretenlere, Taylandlı öğrenciler için İngilzice öğretme materyalleri ve pratik araçlar geliştirmeye yardımcı olacak bilgileri de sunmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Açıklayıcı yazma, özne-yüklem analizi, Sistemik İşlevsel Dil Bilgisi

Kaynakça

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