A Contrastive Study On Lexical Bundles In English Academic Writing Of Applied Linguistics

Lexical bundles are the building blocks of language, which contribute to language production, fluency and nativelikeness in English speaking and writing. Numbers of corpus-based/driven researches focus on bundle characteristics used by NS and NNS, but few of them investigate bundles in academic writing of a specific discipline; and it is still in doubt whether the previous general findings on bundle characteristics are applicable to a certain discipline. Therefore, this research establishes two corpora (about2million running words) and tries to discover the similarities and differences in bundle use in English academic writing of Applied Linguistics by Chinese postgraduates and NS experts. Based on the corpora retrieval, the top50four-word lexical bundles are identified and then classified in terms of structures and functions. Quantitative and qualitative analyses are conducted to explore the distribution, frequency, structural and functional characteristics of lexical bundles among the two groups of writers.Results show that the overall distributions (both structures and functions) of the top50four-word lexical bundles are similar among student and expert writers. However they rely on different lexical bundle resources. Students tend to overuse VP-based patterns and aviod relative-clause patterns compared with their counterparts. Further structural and functional analyses reveal more problems in English academic writing by Chinese postgraduates:1. negative transfer in lexical bundles from Chinese;2. the absence of pragmatic quality of lexical bundles;3. inappropriate bundle selections influenced by their identity as novice researchers These findings show that problems still exist in postgraduates’ bundle uses, and general findings in previous bundle researches do not always applicable to a certain discipline. This research is significant to EFL teaching of writing courses (in particular to EAP), EFL learners’ bundle acquisition in different learning stages of and the improvement of textbooks for EAP and ESP writing courses.