A Comparative Study Of Lexical Bundles In English Abstracts Of Doctoral Dissertation In Applied Linguistics Between China And America

Lexical bundles are extended as collocations or combinations of three or more words,which play a part in discourse construction(Biber et al,1999).In the past few decades,corpus-based research on English academic writing has developed rapidly,among which the exploration of lexical bundles in academic writing has becoming increasingly significant as these multiword sequences are generally recognized as an important aspect of proper and skilled language use(Chen & Baker,2010).Since Biber et al.(1999)introduced the term “lexical bundles”,a large number of studies have been undertaken to compile bundle lists,test the relationship between lexical bundles,and guide the teaching of academic writing.Prior studies on lexical bundles have covered a wide range,including academic journals,textbooks and dissertations.However,there are relatively few studies on the abstracts of doctoral dissertations in applied linguistics.As the opening part,abstract is the concentration and essence of the full text,which usually affects the retrieval and reading of the entire dissertation.Readers can get the necessary information through the abstract,which shows that the abstract itself is independent and convenient for the dissemination of knowledge.Considering the deficiencies of Chinese learners in the ability to use lexical bundles in English abstracts,this present study is going to explore the following issues:1.What are the common four-word lexical bundles in the dissertation abstracts of Chinese and American native doctoral students in the two corpora?2.What are the structural differences in four-word lexical bundles between Chinese and American native doctoral students?3.What are the functional differences in four-word lexical bundles between Chinese and American native doctoral students?To solve the above questions,this study establishes two corpora of doctoral dissertations in applied linguistics between China and the United States by means of corpus analysis,aiming to extract qualified four-word lexical bundles by using the software Ant Conc combined with manual screening.According to structural classification developed by Biber et al’ s(1999)in academic field and Hyland’s(2008a)functional taxonomy of lexical bundles,this study compares the differences in English abstracts writing between the doctoral students of the two countries and provides writing inspirations.The results are listed below:(1)According to the frequency of lexical bundles in the two corpora,the number of lexical bundles used by Chinese doctoral students is apparently more than that of American native peers,but the diversity of lexical bundles is less than that of native students.Among the top 50 most frequently used lexical bundles in each corpus,90% of them do not overlap,which indicates that there are still great differences in the use of lexical bundles between Chinese and American doctoral students.(2)The structural analysis of lexical bundles shows that the most frequently used by students of the two countries are phrasal bundles,but there are differences in the distribution of lexical bundle types.NP-based bundles are most frequently used category in both corpora,but Chinese students seldom use complex post-modifiers to construct subordinate clauses.In the use of PP-based bundles,Chinese students use more bundles than American students in both subcategories.In clause-based bundles,Chinese students tend to use passive voice to express objectivity,while native speakers prefer to use active structures.(3)In terms of functions,text-oriented and participant-oriented bundles employed by the students of the two countries show a certain similarity,while some differences are shown in participant-oriented bundles.Text-oriented bundles are the most frequently used ones in both corpora,accounting for 48% and 56% respectively,which is in line with the writing features of soft science(Hyland,2008b),while the least used are participant-oriented bundles.In terms of the functional subcategories of lexical bundles,the two groups of students use more description and procedure bundles,transition bundles are less used,so the cohesion needs to be strengthened.Based on the analysis of the three aspects,this study shows that there is little difference in the overall structural and functional use of identified lexical bundles between Chinese doctoral students and native peers,but there are some differences in the subcategories of lexical bundles,which indicates that Chinese doctoral students’ ability of using lexical bundles in the field of applied linguistics is basically close to that of native students,but they still need to make further improvement in the use of some specific categories of lexical bundles.In the process of foreign language teaching,teachers need to guide students to raise their awareness of using lexical bundles in abstract writing,and let students actively explore the differences between languages,so as to enhance their skills of abstract writing.