"THEMATIC PROGRESSION IN ACADEMIC WRITING: AN INVESTIGATION FROM VIETNAMESE EFL UNIVERSITY LEARNERS’ PERSPECTIVES "

Abstract

"This study investigates Vietnamese EFL university students’ understanding and application of thematic progression (TP) in academic writing, with a focus on both their perceptions of TP and their actual use of TP patterns in written texts. Grounded in Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday, 2014) and Danes’s (1974) model of thematic progression, the research aims to: (1) examine the extent to which English-majored students apply different TP patterns in their writing, and (2) explore their perceptions of TP in academic writing. Accordingly, the study is guided by two research questions: To what extent is thematic progression applied in English-majored students’ writing practice? and What perceptions do EFL students hold regarding thematic progression in academic writing? A quantitative approach was employed, combining a narrative frame questionnaire to elicit students’ perceptions and a writing task to analyze their actual use of TP patterns. The study involved 42 students from class English Teacher Education and English Studies at a university in Mekong Delta. The findings reveal although most students acknowledged the importance of coherence, their understanding of TP was limited. Many relied primarily on surface-level cohesive devices rather than deeper information-structuring strategies. Writing analysis showed a dominant use of constant theme progression, followed by simple linear progression, while derived and split rheme patterns appeared infrequently, reflecting restricted thematic development. Overall, the responses revealed a mixture of partial awareness and uncertainty regarding coherence, idea development, and organizational strategies. These results suggest gaps between students’ perceived coherence strategies and their actual writing practices, highlighting the need for explicit instruction in TP to enhance coherence in EFL academic writing."