Theme and Thematic Progression in Narrative Texts of Indonesian EFL Learners

This study aims to analyze and describe the Thematic progression patterns and types of Theme in students' narrative texts of Indonesian EFL Learners. This study employs a descriptive-qualitative research design. The data were obtained from a collection of students' texts. This study uses the theory of Thematic progression: Bloor and Bloor (2004), and the theory of types of Theme developed by Halliday (1994), Gerot & Wignell (1994), Halliday et al. (2004). The finding shows a dominant use of Constant pattern in narrative texts indicates that the students are able to create a focus on specific participants as this is one of the linguistics features of narrative texts. The use of Linear pattern indicates that the students have achieved the ability to create cohesion of the texts by introducing the new information by taking a Rheme to become Theme of the upcoming clause. In terms of types of Theme, the high number of Topical Themes in students' text may indicate that the students are able to lead the reader to focus on participants (characters) of the story. The use of Interpersonal Themes, which dominantly used by middle and low achievers, indicate that high achievers tend to be complex lexically (written language), while middle and low achievers tend to use complex grammatically (spoken language). The dominant use of Textual Theme indicates that the students are able to create complex clause and to connect the clause which helps them to create a cohesive and coherent text.