A functional grammar-based study on textual metafunctions in ielts reading passages

Abstract

Building upon Halliday & Hasan‟s (1985) view on textual metafunctions , this research intended to investigate the thematic structure, the information structure and cohesive devices used in IELTS reading passages. There were 50 passages to be analysed. Firstly, the findings of this research show that the thematic structures include thematic equatives and thematic patterns. In thematic equatives, there are 2 conponents such as equative equivalents and non-equative equivalents. Non-equative equivalents occur more regularly. Thematic patterns consists of topical, textual and interpersonal theme. And topical theme is the most prominent type, followed by textual theme and then interpersonal theme. The information structure refers to the organization of a text in terms of the functions given and new. This thesis investigated three types of information structure which are given new structure, new- given structure and unit with new elements only. Most of these sentences has given information in their initial position, and very few had given information in their final position. It can be realized that given- new structure dominantly outnumbers new- given structure .Finally, all major types of cohesive devices were found in the analyzed essays. There were reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and lexical cohesion. Among those five types found, lexical cohesion holds the most prominently, followed by reference, conjunction, substitution and ellipsis as the least prominent type. In conclusion, thematic structure plays important role in organizing the message of the reading passages. It is quite useful to help students to scan for the key information, especially test takers when doing IELTS reading tests and follow the writers underlying concerns. Moreover, analyzing the thematic iii structure of the text enables students to quickly find out where the most important information is located and infer some hidden messages the writer intends to convey. And, thanks to mastering knowledge about the information structure, I mean the given-new structure, test-takers can reduce the time when doing IELTS reading passages.