Applying Theme Types and Thematic Progression to Cohesion and Coherence of IELTSAcademic Writing Task 2: AQualitative Descriptive Study

Duetotheunsatisfied IELTS writing scores in the past decade, previous studies investigated the problems and solutions from lexical, syntactic, and task analysis perspectives. However, they ignored the influence of coherence and cohesion on the overall performance of IELTSAcademic Writing Task 2. Hence, the research conducted a qualitative descriptive study to writing cohesion and coherence of 15 practice essays of Chinese undergraduates under theme types and thematic progression of Functional Grammar. It initially analyzed the distributing features of themes and thematic progression patterns. It further adopted theme- and thematic progression-based writing rubrics to evaluate the coherence and cohesion of IELTS writing essays separately. The research findings showed that as the writing level of learners rose, dominant topical themes and constant thematic progression decreased, whereas textual themes and simple linear progression following them increased. They also revealed that learners achieved a higher cohesion in conjunctions and reiterations than in references and presented higher coherence in body parts than in introductions and conclusions. These results suggest that theme types and thematic progressions effectively reflect and evaluate coherent and cohesive performance in IELTS writing.