DOI: https://doi.org/10.61957/joerai-20230207

Title: On the Theme-rheme Theory and Its Application in English Writing

Author: Biqin wei

Abstract

Writing, as one of the important productive skills, has long been a giant headache for both students and teachers in English teaching and learning, though both of them have made great efforts. Aiming at the problems and considering the limitations of some different writing theories, the author puts forward a new perspective to change the current situation in English writing and teaching. The paper reveals there are three main problems in college students’ writing and two main causes for their poor writings. Meanwhile, it discusses the theme-rheme theory and several types of thematic progression pattern through examples. After employing the theme-rheme theory in teaching and a lot of writing practice, the author considers that theme-rheme theory is helpful and works especially well in guiding students to change dull sentence structures and produce coherent writing. To some extent, students have more interest in writing and most of them succeed in avoiding the problems and make much progress in writing.
　

Keywords: Theme-rheme theory; Thematisation; Thematic progression pattern; English writing