Muhammad Yusuf, Wawan Gunawan, Lidwina Sri Ardiasih, Zulfa Sakhiyya, Mahmud Arief Albar, Fikry Prastya Syahputra
English for Tourism textbooks play a crucial role in developing students’ language skills for the tourism industry. Among the various components of these textbooks, reading passages are particularly important for exposing learners to authentic language use and thematic structures. This study aims to investigate how thematic analysis is used in selected reading passages in an English for tourism and hospitality textbook. The study is grounded in the textual meta-function within the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). A qualitative content analysis approach was employed to examine thematic structures. The data consisted of 500 clauses taken from 13 passages in the textbook of English for Hotel and Tourism. From the analysis, it was found that two primary types of theme structures used in the textbook include simple and multiple themes. The simple themes (ST) are realized through the topical theme at the beginning of the clause. The multiple themes (MT) are represented through the combination of textual ^ and topical elements, often marked by conjunctions. In terms of markedness of Theme, the variations in the theme were found, including Unmarked Simple Theme (UST), Unmarked Multiple Theme (UMT), and Marked Simple Theme (MST). The variation of the theme helps in organizing the flow of information. The changing of the Theme position (marked or unmarked) can be a sign of important content in focus in the passage. © 2025 The Author(s).
Universitas Sumatera Utara, Indonesia; Universitas Pendidikan, Indonesia; Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia; Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia
