Structures and Functions of Lexical Bundles in Student and Expert Timed Argumentative Writing: A Corpus-Driven Study

Despite rich research into lexical bundle use in documented writing on both expert and novice levels, little is known about this linguistic behaviour undergraduate timed argumentative writing. This study aimed to narrow gap by examining two self-compiled corpora: a student corpus composed of 200 essays written first-year students at Vietnamese university an comprising the same type produced IELTS professional writers. Employing existing classification frameworks, it compared structures functions four-word bundles across corpora. Results showed that was more clausal than phrasal corpora, inconsistent with few previous studies. In addition, outnumbered reference all broad structural categories, which can be ascribed over-manipulation “Pronoun/NP + be/VP fragment”, “NP of-phrase “PP fragment” constructions. Function-wise, ubiquity stance discourse organising corpora reflected nature argumentation, one hand, rigidly structured format, other. The concluded methodological implications for pedagogical L2