The Analysis Of Structure, Function And Moves Of Lexical Bundles In Chinese Efl Learners’ Academic Writing Introductions

Lexical bundles are an important linguistic component of academic texts.Although researchers have become increasingly interested in studying lexical bundles in recent years, little research has been conducted to combine specific move or step of introductions with the use of lexical bundles. Thus, through the method of corpus-based quantitative and qualitative analysis, this study established three corpora of introductory sections in MA theses, Ph D dissertations and international published articles, aiming to investigate the four-word lexical bundles used in Chinese EFL learners’ theses introductions in terms of frequency, structure, function and moves in the CARS(Create a Research Space) model(Swales, 1990, 2004).Compared to international published articles, both MA theses and Ph D dissertations tended to underuse and overuse some bundles. Major findings are shown as follows:(1) In terms of frequency, MA theses used the most lexical bundles,followed by Ph D dissertations, and international published articles used the least.Over half of the bundles in published articles were not identified in learners’ writings,showing their underuse of core bundles.(2) Structurally, both international published articles and Ph D dissertations mainly used noun-based, preposition-based and verb-based bundles, while MA theses used more noun-based and preposition-based bundles. MA theses and Ph D dissertations both underused clausal bundles.(3)Functionally, text-oriented bundles were dominant in international published articles and Ph D dissertations, while MA theses used research-oriented bundles the most.Both MA theses and Ph D dissertations lacked participant-oriented bundles.(4) In move distribution, MA theses and Ph D dissertations displayed more similarities than differences. They both overused several bundles in most of the steps, and underused several in some obligatory steps. Moreover, some bundles showed a strong tendency to appear in the step of “indicating the structure of the paper”.The research results manifested Chinese EFL learners’ lack of accuracy andidiomaticity in lexical bundle usage. Compared to MA theses, Ph D dissertations were much closer to the level of international published articles in terms of frequency,structure and function, implying the gradual development of learners’ academic competence. However, the improvement was not remarkable according to the move distribution, revealing learners’ deficiency in academic training and input.These findings provide some empirical evidence to improve Chinese EFL learners’ academic writing instruction. The author gives some suggestions in terms of material design and classroom teaching, seeking to have implications for English academic writing instruction in China.