Finnish writers' academic English
Problems with reference and theme
Eija Ventola | The University of Helsinki
The paper illustrates how many Finnish writers tend to have difficulties coding references to text participants appropriately in their English texts. When organising their texts thematically, Finnish writers also appear to apply thematic patterns which are not typical of English texts. In addition, Finnish writers do not seem to utilise the possibilities of the interplay between the REFERENCE and THEME systems at their textual optimum. The insights into the textual analysis of FL-scientific writing presented here may prove useful when applied linguists are facing the challenge of designing courses for academic writing in a foreign language, courses which will develop learners' consciousness and linguistic skills in organising information in texts in a way which is referentially and thematically cohesive.
Published online: 01 January 1994
https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.1.2.05ven
https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.1.2.05ven
Cited by
Cited by 9 other publications
Dahl, Trine
2004. Textual metadiscourse in research articles: a marker of national culture or of academic discipline?.
Journal of Pragmatics 36:10 ► pp. 1807 ff. 
Gosden, Hugh
1998. An aspect of holistic modeling in academic writing: Propositional clusters as a heuristic for thematic control.
Journal of Second Language Writing 7:1 ► pp. 19 ff.
Kong, Kenneth C. C.
2004. Marked Themes and thematic patterns in abstracts, advertisements and administrative documents.
<i>WORD</i> 55:3 ► pp. 343 ff.
Leppänen, Sirpa & Tarja Nikula
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In Theme and Thematic Progression in Chinese College Students’ English Essays,
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Wei, Jing
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In Theme and Thematic Progression in Chinese College Students’ English Essays,
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Wei, Jing
2016.
In Theme and Thematic Progression in Chinese College Students’ English Essays,
► pp. 65 ff.
Wei, Jing
2016.
In Theme and Thematic Progression in Chinese College Students’ English Essays,
► pp. 129 ff.
Wei, Jing
2016. Thematic choice in Chinese college students' English essays.
English for Specific Purposes 41 ► pp. 50 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 30 october 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.