AN ANALYSIS OF THEMATIC PROGRESSION STRATEGIES IN ACADEMIC IELTS SAMPLE ESSAYS

Abstract

Among the four language skills of English assessed by IELTS, academic writing, especially required for Task 2 of the IELTS academic module, is considered the most difficult by many test-takers in their efforts to gain high scores. From the perspective of Functional Grammar by M.A.K. Halliday, it can be claimed that thematic progression plays a crucial part in producing a cohesive and coherent piece of writing. With this foundation, the research presented in this article is aimed at investigating the thematic progression patterns employed in 20 academic IELTS sample essays from books published by Cambridge University Press and IELTS official websites with the band score of 9 written by highly successful test-takers with a view to identifying what element in an English clause to be selected as Theme and how the information in a clause is effectively distributed in light of Functional Grammar. It is hoped that the findings of this research can help to raise awareness of prospective IELTS test-takers about salient thematic patterns of sample IELTS academic essays whereby they can make good use of fruitful strategies to highly accomplish the IELTS Academic writing task 2.