Lexical Bundles in the Argumentative Essays of Vietnamese and American Student Writers

Abstract

This study examines lexical bundles used in argumentative writings by Vietnamese EFL university students-L2 learners and American university students-L1 learners to see how two groups use bundles and identify problems which L2 learners face. Two corpora including writings by L2 and L1 learners are collected. By using Biber et al.’s structural taxonomy (1999, 2004) and Hyland’s functional framework (2008a), we analyse the structures and functions of the four-word bundles used by the two group writings to see any differences. Compared with L1 learners, L2 learners use a wider range of bundles. Regarding structures, L2 learners overuse VP-based bundles, while L1 learners use VP, NP and PP-based bundles flexibly. For functions, L1 learners prefer to use participant-oriented bundles, while L2 learners tend to employ researchoriented bundles. The text-oriented bundles are the least commonly occurring ones in the two groups’ essays. To understand how L2 learners overuse bundles in their writings, a qualitative method is used to examine each essay. Some underlying explanations for the overuse might be side effects of teaching and lack of knowledge of the bundle. A pedagogical implication of teaching L2 learners to use bundles in writing class is suggested to help their writing more convincingly and academically.