Thirdly,some studies have found that in students’L2 writings,different TPpatterns are used in different genres.Bloor(1991)investigated the use of TP patternsin medical essays and news reports,finding that the two types of essays use differenttypes of patterns.Since medical essays contain descriptive paragraphs such asintroduction,research methods,and research results,they tend to have a highfrequency of using TP with continuous themes with a descriptive function.In contrast,news reports contain more explanatory discourse,so the linear TP is used more oftenin such texts.Bloor also noted that the linear TP is often used to organize and developargumentative discourse in order to explain and justify the information in theparagraphs.
2.2 Studies on Continuation Task
2.2.1 Foreign Studies
There is no direct research abroad on the continuation task.In foreign countries,scholars have focused on the connection between reading and writing.Widdowson(1978)argued that reading and writing should be taught together,because learners canlearn writing skills from reading materials and learn reading skills from writingproduction.Bracewell&Frederiksen(1982)pointed out that the process of writing isactually a higher-level process belonging to reading and thinking.Fitzgerald&Shanahan(2000)demonstrated that reading and writing are two complementaryactivities because they involve similar cognitive structures and contexts.
In addition,a number of scholars have worked on comparing the effects of thereading-to-writing task and the writing-only task on learners’learning ability,and theyhave also focused on the effect of tasks combining reading and writing on promotinglearning.Flood&Lapp(1987)argued that there can be a positive effect betweenreading and writing,and that people who are experienced in reading are better atwriting.Tsang(1996)experimentally compared the effects of the reading-to-writingtask and the writing-only task,finding that the reading-to-writing task was moreeffective in promoting students’descriptive writing skills and improving students’ability to use language.Similarly,Aminzadeh and Bouyeh(2015)studied 68intermediate English learners to investigate the effect of the reading-to-writing taskand the writing-only task on their writing ability.
Chapter Three Theoretical Framework .............................. 11
3.1 Thematic Progression Patterns ............................ 11
3.1.1 Definition of Theme ............................. 11
3.1.2 Classification of Theme .......................... 12
Chapter Four Methodology .................... 19
4.1 Research Questions .......................... 19
4.2 Research Participants ........................... 19
4.3 Research Method ............................... 19
Chapter Five Research Results .................. 27
5.1 Results of Experiment .................................. 27
5.1.1 Results of Using Thematic Progression Patterns ....................... 27
5.1.2 Results of Coherence .......................... 30
Chapter Six Discussion
6.1 Discussion on the Use of Thematic Progression Patterns
This part discusses the participants’use of themes as well as TP patterns in theirpre-test and post-test writings in order to answer the first research question of h
