Are Phrases Frozen? Investigating Lexical Bundles in Non-native and Native Reports in MICUSP

As one of the most prominent components of native-like language use, lexical bundles play a crucial role in academic texts. Considering the amount of written language produced by writers, this study explored lexical bundles in non-native and native academic reports. To that end, 100 sample reports of non-native and native writers taken from the Michigan Corpus of Upper-level Student Papers (MICUSP) were selected and analyzed to find non-native and native writers’ use of lexical bundles regarding frequency, structure, and function. Results indicated that native writers generally used a more extensive variety of lexical bundles in their reports. Regarding the structure of bundles, both non-native and native writers tended to employ more noun phrases with of-phrase fragments. In terms of the functions of bundles, both groups of writers tended to use more research-oriented bundles, followed by text-oriented and participant-oriented bundles, respectively. Findings highlight the value of fixed expressions in producing coherent academic texts by proficient writers, hence their importance in materials design and second language instruction.