Lexical bundles in learner corpora - Multi-word units and metaphor in ESP

Vocabulary and English for Specific Purposes Research - Averil Coxhead 2018

Lexical bundles in learner corpora
Multi-word units and metaphor in ESP

Lexical bundles have been researched fairly widely in a range of studies on learner corpora (for example, Ebeling & Hasselgård, 2015; Paquot & Granger, 2012), with frequent comparisons of first and second language writers in English. Differences in the amount of use of lexical bundles in student writing have been found in several studies. Ädel and Erman (2012), for example, examined lexical bundles in the writing of Linguistics students in Stockholm, Sweden, and at King’s College London, England. In total, 325 essays were analysed, first using a quantitative frequency-based approach of four-word bundles in the corpora, and then using a qualitative analysis of the functions of these bundles using Biber’s (2006) framework. Ädel and Erman (2012) found that the native speakers used more and a wider variety of lexical bundles in their writing than the Swedish students writing in English. Differences were found in the use of stance bundles (used more by the first language writers) and discourse organising bundles (favoured more by the Swedish writers). Both sets of writers used about the same amount of referential bundles.