Do native writers always have a head start over nonnative writers? The use of lexical bundles in college students’ essays

Abstract

Abstract Formulaic language is widely used in academic prose and is known to be a useful measure of various aspects of language development. Prior studies have reported that L2 novice/student writers rely on formulaic language typical of conversation more than L1 academic writers do. However, these studies compared different types of academic writing, and thus do not clarify whether the L2 patterns they found are attributable to register or to characteristics of L2 writers, or both. The present study addresses this gap by examining the use of frequently recurring word sequences (lexical bundles) with comparable corpora of L1 and L2 novice academic writing, strictly matched for register and writing prompts. The study identified lexical bundles in the corpora, and analyzed these bundles’ structures and functions. The findings suggest that the two groups display many common features in the use of bundles, including heavy use of VP-based bundles, stance-expression bundles, idiomatic PP bundles, and informal quantifying bundles, all of which have been described in previous work as unique features of learner LB use. The findings are informative regarding the extent to which native and nonnative students enter college equipped with knowledge of formulaic language appropriate to academic writing.