LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 12 : 5 May 2012
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Interpersonal Theme in Reading Comprehension Texts

Seyed Jamal Ebrahimi

Abstract

This paper intended to see how interpersonal theme and its types are tackled in reading comprehension texts developed by native and non-native writers. The present study relied on a corpus of sixteen reading comprehension texts extracted from four reading comprehension textbooks. To uncover the frequency of interpersonal theme and its types the data were analyzed based on Halliday’s (1985, 1994, 2004) model of thematic organization. The result indicated that while interpersonal theme was tackled differently by native and non-native writers, in both texts modal adjuncts were the most frequent types of interpersonal theme. The findings showed the importance of interpersonal theme and its types in creating reader friendly text. The findings of this study are applicable in teaching reading comprehension skill.

Key terms: theme, interpersonal theme, reading comprehension text

Introduction

One of the linguistic choices which writers should make at the clause level is theme. Theme originated from systemic functional grammar. Systemic functional grammar (SFG) is a grammar model developed by Halliday — the most well-known component of a broad social semiotic approach to language called systemic-functional linguistics, in the 1960s. Systemic-functional grammar is concerned primarily with the choices that are made available to speakers of a language by their grammatical systems. These choices are assumed to be meaningful and relate speakers' intentions to the concrete forms of a language.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Seyed Jamal Ebrahimi
Department of English
Shadegan Branch, Islamic Azad University
Shadegan
Iran
Jetco2003@yahoo.co.uk
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