A bibliometric analysis of lexical bundles usage in native and non-native academic writing

Yıl 2020, Cilt: 16 Sayı: 3, 1146 - 1166, 01.10.2020

Fatma Demiray Akbulut

https://doi.org/10.17263/jlls.803583

Öz

Over the last few decades, it has become obligatory to publish academic research to survive in academic world. In academic writing skill, lexical bundles (LBs) usage is marked as a master ability to build well-organized paragraphs or essays and are essential instruments to sound more natural and be fluent in English. The current study aimed to search the usage of LBs by non-native and native English academic writers and comparing the profiles of LBs in terms of the function, structure, and frequency. A corpus of 257 articles written by native and non-native academic writers was organized and multi-word LBs were identified using AntConc 3.2.4w. Written texts are collected from Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies (JLLS) by non-native speakers (NNSs) and Linguistics and Education Journal (LINGED) by native speakers (NSs). The findings suggest that non-native writers generally use more lexical bundles but fall into more repetitions. Besides, there are some substantial differences in the frequencies of structural and functional usage of LBs. In structural category, NNSs used Noun Phrase (NP) and Prepositional Phrase (PP)-based LBs and Conjunction at a lower rate, and Verb Phrase (VP) and Clause-based LBs at a higher rate than NSs. In terms of functional category, research-oriented LBs are more frequently used by NSs while text and stance-oriented LBs are more frequently used by NNSs. As a conclusion, it is stated that, the lexico-grammatical difference between two languages and the NNSs’ tendency to write result-oriented article revealed distinct features of LB usage.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Lexical bundles, academic writing, multi-word units, lexical teaching, English language

Kaynakça

• Ädel, A., & Erman, B. (2012). Recurrent word combinations in academic writing by native and non-native speakers of English: A lexical bundles approach. English for specific purposes, 31(2), 81-92.
• Allan, R. (2016). Lexical bundles in graded readers: To what extent does language restriction affect lexical patterning?. System, 59, 61-72.
• Ang, L. H., & Tan, K. H. (2018). Specificity in English for Academic Purposes (EAP): A Corpus analysis of lexical bundles in academic writing. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature®, 24(2).
• Ang, L. H., Tan, K. H. & He, M. (2017). A corpus-based collocational analysis of noun premodification types in academic writing. 3L: The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies. Vol. 23(1), 115-131.
• Anthony, L. (2019). AntConc (Version 3.5.8) [Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan:Waseda University. Available from http://www.laurenceanthony.net/software.
• Bal, B. (2010). Analysis of Four-word Lexical Bundles in Published Resesarch Articles Written by Turkish Scholars.
• Biber, D., & Barbieri, F. (2007). Lexical bundles in university spoken and written registers. English for specific purposes, 26(3), 263-286.
• Biber, D. (2006). Stance in spoken and written university registers. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 5(2), 97-116.
• Biber, D., & Gray, B. (2010). Challenging stereotypes about academic writing: Complexity, elaboration, explicitness. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 9(1), 2-20.
• Biber, D., Conrad, S., & Cortes, V. (2004). If you look at…: Lexical bundles in university teaching and textbooks. Applied linguistics, 25(3), 371-405.
• Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (1999). Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Harlow, England: Pearson Education Limited.
• Bychkovska, T., & Lee, J. J. (2017). At the same time: Lexical bundles in L1 and L2 university student argumentative writing. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 30, 38-52.
• Chen, Y. H., & Baker, P. (2010). Lexical bundles in L1 and L2 academic writing. Language Learning & Technology, 14(2), 30-49.
• Chen, Y. H., & Baker, P. (2016). Investigating criterial discourse features across second language development: Lexical bundles in rated learner essays, CEFR B1, B2 and C1. Applied Linguistics, 37(6), 849-880.
• Cortes, V. (2004). Lexical bundles in published and student disciplinary writing: Examples from history and biology. English for specific purposes, 23(4), 397-423.
• Cortes, V. (2013). The purpose of this study is to: Connecting lexical bundles and moves in research article introductions. Journal of English for academic purposes, 12(1), 33-43.
• Coxhead, A., & Byrd, P. (2007). Preparing writing teachers to teach the vocabulary and grammar of academic prose. Journal of second language writing, 16(3), 129-147.
• Ghafar Samar, R., Shokrpour, N., & Nasiri, E. (2018). The Applicability of Teaching Lexical Bundles on Medical Students' Writing Proficiency in an EFL Context. Teaching English Language, 12(2), 27-44.
• Grabowski, Ł. (2015). Keywords and lexical bundles within English pharmaceutical discourse: A corpus-driven description. English for Specific Purposes, 38, 23-33.
• Güngör, F., & Uysal, H. H. (2016). A Comparative Analysis of Lexical Bundles Used by Native and Non-native Scholars. English Language Teaching, 9(6), 176-188.
• Huang, K. (2015). More does not mean better: Frequency and accuracy analysis of lexical bundles in Chinese EFL learners' essay writing. System, 53, 13-23.
• Hyland, K. (2008a). Academic clusters: Text patterning in published and postgraduate writing. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 18(1), 41-62.
• Hyland, K. (2008b). As can be seen: Lexical bundles and disciplinary variation. English for specific purposes, 27(1), 4-21.
• Juknevičienė, R. (2009). Lexical bundles in learner language: Lithuanian learners vs. native speakers. Kalbotyra, 61, 61-72.
• Karabacak, E., & Qin, J. (2013). Comparison of lexical bundles used by Turkish, Chinese, and American university students. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 70, 622-628.
• Lu, X., & Deng, J. (2019). With the rapid development: A contrastive analysis of lexical bundles in dissertation abstracts by Chinese and L1 English doctoral students. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 39, 21-36.
• Meunier, F., & Gouverneur, C. (2007). The treatment of phraseology in ELT textbooks. In Corpora in the foreign language classroom (pp. 119-139). Brill Rodopi.
• Nesi, H., & Basturkmen, H. (2006). Lexical bundles and discourse signalling in academic lectures. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 11(3), 283-304.
• Öztürk, Y., & Köse, G. D. (2016). Turkish and native English academic writers’ use of lexical bundles. Dil ve Dilbilimi Çalışmaları Dergisi, 12(1), 149-165.
• Pan, F., Reppen, R., & Biber, D. (2016). Comparing patterns of L1 versus L2 English academic professionals: Lexical bundles in Telecommunications research journals. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 21, 60-71.
• Paquot, M. (2017). L1 frequency in foreign language acquisition: Recurrent word combinations in French and Spanish EFL learner writing. Second Language Research, 33(1), 13-32.
• Ruan, Z. (2017). Lexical bundles in Chinese undergraduate academic writing at an English medium university. RELC Journal, 48(3), 327-340.
• Shin, Y. K. (2019). Do native writers always have a head start over nonnative writers? The use of lexical bundles in college students’ essays. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 40, 1-14.
• Siyanova-Chanturia, A., Conklin, K., & Van Heuven, W. J. (2011). Seeing a phrase “time and again” matters: The role of phrasal frequency in the processing of multiword sequences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 37(3), 776.
• Staples, S., & Reppen, R. (2016). Understanding first-year L2 writing: A lexico-grammatical analysis across L1s, genres, and language ratings. Journal of Second Language Writing, 32, 17-35.
• Tremblay, A., Derwing, B., Libben, G., & Westbury, C. (2011). Processing advantages of lexical bundles: Evidence from self‐paced reading and sentence recall tasks. Language Learning, 61(2), 569-613.
• Ucar, S. (2017). A Corpus-Based Study on the Use of Three-Word Lexical Bundles in the Academic Writing by Native English and Turkish Non-Native Writers. English Language Teaching, 10(12), 28-36.
• Wright, H. R. (2019). Lexical bundles in stand-alone literature reviews: Sections, frequencies, and functions. English for Specific Purposes, 54, 1-14.