Four-word Lexical Bundles In The Introduction Section Of M.A. Theses Of Applied Linguistics By Chinese And American Candidates

In recent decades,the study of lexical bundle has aroused increasing attention from researchers as it can help to achieve various functions in the text.In the lexical bundles,four-word lexical bundle is the one that was studied most.The introduction section is the first section of a thesis,and many studies have taken it as the data.However,few researches have been conducted to investigate the lexical bundles in thesis introduction section.Thus the structures and functions of four-word lexical bundles in thesis introduction are worth exploration.Using the structural and functional taxonomies on lexical bundles proposed by Biber et al.(1999;2004),the present study aims to explore the differences and similarities in structures and functions of four-word lexical bundles in introduction sections of M.A.theses by Chinese and American Candidates.Thus,the writer collected 90 M.A.theses(45 theses from Chinese students and 45 from American candidates)and took their introduction sections,totaling 100,000 words,as the data for analysis.The results are as follows:(1)In terms of differences and similarities in structures of four-word lexical bundles in introduction sections,it was found that on the whole,Chinese students and their American counterparts did show significant difference,though specifically,they did not show any significant differences in the following 7 structural categories: lexical bundles consisting of noun phrase with of-phrase fragment,lexical bundles consisting of prepositional phrase with embedded of-phrase fragment,lexical bundles consisting of anticipatory it and verb/adjective phrase,lexical bundles consisting of passive verb and prepositional phrase fragment,lexical bundles consisting of copula be and noun phrase/adjective phrase,lexical bundles consisting of(verb/adjective+)to-clause fragment and lexical bundles consisting of pronoun/noun phrase + be(+…).The significant difference was shown in the following 4 structural categories: lexical bundles consisting of noun phrase with other post-modifier fragment,lexical bundles consisting of other prepositional phrase fragment,lexical bundles consisting of other expressions and lexical bundles consisting of other verb phrase fragment.Furthermore,it was found that more lexical bundles consisting of noun phrase with other post modifier fragment and more lexical bundles consisting of other verb phrase fragment were employed by Chinese students.More lexical bundles consisting of other prepositional phrase fragment and more lexical bundles consisting of other expressions were employed by American students.(2)In terms of differences and similarities in functions of four-word lexical bundles in introduction section,it was found that on the whole,the Chinese and American candidates did show significant difference.However,specifically,they did not show any significant differences in stance expression and referential expressions,although they showed significant difference in discourse organizers and writer/discipline-specific bundles.Furthermore,it was found that more writer/discipline-specific bundles were employed by Chinese students while more discourse organizers were employed by American students.Additionally,it was found that Chinese students tended to employ lexical bundles in a more restricted manner to some extent and they over-generalized certain lexical bundles in their M.A.Theses.The present study had much implication.As for students,they should be aware of the importance of lexical bundles in constructing discourse but at the same time try to avoid using too many lexical bundles.As for teachers in L2 English academic writing,explicit instructions in lexical bundles should be added in the course of academic writing to assist learners to acquire an appropriate disciplinary-sensitive repertoire of bundles.