Lexical Bundles in Biomedical Engineering Research Articles: Investigating Native vs. Nonnative Writers’ Preferences

The present research aimed to study how lexical bundles are used in research articles authored by English native and Iranian nonnative writers in the field of biomedical engineering. The type and frequency of lexical bundles employed in the discussion sections of 50 native and 50 nonnative research articles were examined using the AntConc software. The results indicated that, compared to native writers, nonnative ones have a greater tendency to use lexical bundles. In addition, it was found that the variety of the bundles employed in the articles written by nonnative writers is higher. Regarding the type of the bundles, the results revealed that prepositional phrases with of-phrase and other prepositional phrases were more frequent in the native articles, while other prepositional phrases and verb phrases were used more in the nonnative articles. The least frequency in both groups of the articles was related to adverbial clauses. The findings of the present research can be used in syllabus design and materials preparation for academic writing courses.