Lexical Bundles In English-language M.A. Theses In Applied Linguistics By Chinese Writers: A Contrastive Perspective

Corpus linguistic research demonstrates that natural language makesconsiderable use of lexical bundles. They can not only reduce the cognitive load forthe speakers and writers but also saves the speakers and writers from combining thewords anew on each occasion. The acquisition of lexical bundles is a deceive factor inbecoming and being a fluent speaker both in one’s first language and foreignlanguage(s). Writing thesis in English is quite a demanding task for mostpostgraduates and the non-authentic language in thesis has a bad influence on theacceptability of the thesis. The knowledge and use of lexical bundles popular in nativespeakers’ community also helps improving the acceptance and quality of the thesis.Therefore, the purpose of this study is to make a comparative study of the lexicalbundles used in native and non-native writers’ theses, by identifying their similaritiesand differences in function and analyzing the factors that lead to the differences.The researcher randomly selected30applied linguistic theses by Chinese writersand an equal number of theses by their counterparts in English-speaking countries. Acorpus-based analysis was conducted to identify similarities and differences in the useof lexical bundles in the two corpora. The results show that frequent exposure willhelp non-native writers adopt lexical bundles used in authentic theses. On the otherhand, the results indicate that non-native writers tend to overuse or underuse somebundles in native corpus. Even a bundle may occur in the both native and non-nativecorpus, Chinese writers employ lexical bundles in a quite different way. It is possiblethat Chinese writers are influenced by culture and their first language.The research is expected to be contributed to contrastive study between thesesby Chinese writers and by their counterparts in English-speaking countries and helpthesis writers to be more cross-culturally conscious.