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AID FOR TEACHERS: INVESTIGATING LEXICAL BUNDLES OF

ENGLISH WRITERS IN ONLINE MAGAZINE

Fitria Aftinia

M. Ali Agung Barata

Nur Kamilah

Wildan I. Asyhar

Graduate Program in English Language Teaching

INTRODUCTION

To write texts in English for learners of EFL, it is important that they have

the knowledge and use of recurring word combinations, or these combinations are

commonly termed lexical bundles, in a register of English native writers. Lexical

bundles, as defined by Biber, Conrad, and Cortes (2004), are ‘the most frequently

occurring lexical sequences in a register’. Taking from the register of English

native writers, the learners can learn the formulaic language within the language

in use. To name but a few, on the one hand, as well as and as a result of are

recurring word combinations which can be found in texts written by English

writers. Even though these bundles are merely based on the frequency, Allen

(2010) states that the frequency indicates perceptible functions within that of a

particular register, therefore, this can be advantageous to know which of the

language is used frequently.

In fact, knowing and using this formulaic language helps learners of EFL

achieve several advantages to add to their writing. First, using formulaic language,

one can achieve naturalness in the language in use (Allen, 2010). This naturalness

is a plus for writers of EFL because they can make their writing more native-like.

Their writing actually will be more understandable which will ensure the smooth

communication between the writer and readers. Conversely, any misuse of the

formulaic language indicates the lack of writing ability, that also contributes to

communication difficulties (Millar, 2009). This naturalness is obtained because

the formulaic language that is found in the lexical bundles also reveal the

contextual and authentic use of the language. Next, having the knowledge of

lexical bundles brings the learners way of writing and that of the native writers

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converging. This kind of skill can be acquired by the learners when they also

apply their knowledge of use of lexical bundles to their written language product.

Moreover, as learners who are not accustomed to writing in English as a foreign

language, having this skill can make them write more fluently and appropriately.

To mean fluently because the learners have had the collocations of formulaic

language, and appropriately because they know when and how to use them.

Therefore, when learners have the knowledge of lexical bundles, their writing

quality may be added. Finally, having the collocations of formulaic language can

contribute to learners’ ability in finding persuasive and arguing words when

writing academic texts or other texts. Since ‘academic writing is an argument’ and

‘…an analysis’ (Irvin, 2010), it is important that a writer has the ability to

persuade and argue in a manner that can attract readers into his or her ideas. As

McDougall and Nishino (2011) state in the editing tips of effective writing, when

a writer fails to persuade readers with effective presentation, his or her ideas

would not matter. This highlights the importance of using effective words to bring

out the ideas from the writer’s mind onto the writing. Effective words can be those

which make the text concise, punchy and straightforward. This can be helped by

using appropriate choice of words that can exactly translate what is in the writer’s

mind; those which at the same time work to persuade readers in order to

comprehend and, even, agree with the ideas. Thus, what is written will limit to

what s/he means and what is necessary.

Despite the advantages of knowing lexical bundles, studies have found

that learners tended to use lexical bundles differently from the native writers

(Allen, 2010; Biber et al., 2004; Cortes, 2002; H. Jalali, 2013; Z. S. Jalali &

Moini, 2014). The diverging ways of using lexical bundles between learners of

EFL across proficiency and field of study and English native writers are viewed as

‘a potential source of communication difficulties’ (Millar, 2009), therefore this

has to be taken into account by teachers of EFL, especially by those teaching

writing to learners. This research is therefore aimed at providing the most

frequently used formulaic language in the register of English native writers as

which later can be used as learning material by teachers and learners where

English is a foreign language.

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METHOD

The Corpus Used

The present study summarizes and extends findings about lexical bundles

analyzed in written online newspaper corpus. The corpus being analyzed and

summarized here considers only from Nytimes.com online newspaper, for

Nytimes.com is one of reputable online newspaper which is a well known one

around the world; indicated by the release of two versions of Nytimes.com. The

first is Nytimes.com whose news scope is limited in the United States only, and

the other is the more global one, as the international version that covers the news

from the world. Thus, many make use of Nytimes.com as the reference either for

reading or keeping updated.

The corpus was built on the economic and business bases, totaling up to 50

articles. Articles on economic and business tend to use more words that are

persuasive in order to engage the readers effectively because they had the view to

grasp readers’ interest on the topic discussed. Sampling corpus was taken along

demographic guidelines to represent a range of writers. It was concluded that

article writers were English native speakers, assuming from their names such as

Daniel, Jessica, and Thomas. The researchers have analyzed fifty articles and the

corpus length is approximately from 1000 to 3000 words which is relatively short.

With these restrictions established, depth comprehension on findings of the lexical

bundles presented in the register of English writers in the Nytimes.com online

newspaper could be obtained.

The Lexical Bundles Used

In the present study, we investigated the data by using two corpus

software, namely Wordsmith 6.0 and AntConc 3.2.4. Wordsmith 6.0 software is

used to analyze the total number of the lexical bundle in the selected corpus.

However, the other, AntConc 3.2.4, is used for investigating the total number of

the words in the corpus. Applying Hyland’s list of lexical bundles (Hyland, 2008),

we decided to investigate only 3- and 4-word lexical bundles, instead of 3-, 4- and

5-word (See Appendix A for the complete list). This was taken after considering

that the 4-word could represent the 5-word one, for instance, on the other hand the

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(5-word) could be represented by on the other hand (4-word), as well as as a

result of the (5-word) by as a result. Therefore, adequacy could be obtained from

3- and 4-word lexical bundles alone.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The total of lexical bundles analyzed was 50 words from the list, taken

from Hyland (2008) that contained lexical bundles consisting of 3- and 4-word,

detailed in Table 1. Table 1 also presents the five highest ranks of lexical bundles

from 50 lexical bundles in total (See Appendix B for the complete distribution of

the frequency of the lexical bundles).

Table 1. Five most frequently occur lexical bundles

Lexical Bundles Frequency

One of the 19

Some of the 14

According to 11

Part of the 11

As well as 10

From the table above, we only take the five most frequent words, namely;

one of the, some of the, according to the, part of the, and as well as. For more

details, we provide the results of analysis using WordSmith 6.0 in Figure 1 to

Figure 5 to know the use of the lexical bundles that were analyzed in the corpus.

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Figure 1. Findings of one of the

One of the is used before plural nouns in order to identify a single member

of the groups to be described, exemplified, explained, or introduced. From the

results of analysis, it shows that the use of one of the reveals emphasis and

distinguished subject. The case is that the use of this particular lexical bundle is in

the middle of the sentence, hardly found at the beginning. This is probably to

show lesser certainty in the text, unless the text would sound hedging. This could

be beneficial for learners of EFL when deciding to use one of the into their writing.

Figure 2. Findings of some of the

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Unlike the use of one of the, some of the use of some of the are at the

beginning of a sentence. This is to show several members of a particular group in

plural or uncountable nouns. For example, the plural nouns like some of the best

bonuses, while the example of uncountable noun is some of the frustration.

Differently, the use of some of the in the corpus indicates uncertainty of the

amount of something, like some of the most important markets, or, shows that

number is not significant but capability to contain more than a single member is,

like … has produced some of the affected models. Indeed, using this formulaic

language can help the learners keep on writing although they may not be sure

about the number, especially when this surety does not matter much in their

writing.

Figure 3. Findings of according to the

The use of according to, or according to the in this context, may be

confused with the use of based on the, two of which show . From the results of

this corpus analysis, the use of according to the by the writers were mostly before

statistical data or other empirically based data, or trustworthy sources like family

or letter. This has significant effect when used in academic writing, especially

when the learners would present data to support their statements or ideas. Even

when they cannot find statistical evidences, they can include other trustworthy

with appropriately addressing the data sources.

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Figure 4. Findings of part of the

From the above set of concordances, it is obvious that part of the is

followed by nouns or noun phrases, whether the noun is a single word or

compound words. Showing its flexibility, part of the can be put at the beginning

or at the middle of sentence. Compared to the use of some of the, this lexical

bundle does not always show something already mentioned previously, rather this

introduces a new subject of focus in the sentence. For example, in The company

was part of the Silicon valley accelerator … reveals that the company is

introduced as a new focus but regarded as member of the aforementioned group.

Using part of the also presents less significant stance of the described noun as it

still links to the whole body of another element. Yet, using part of the shows less

authoritative and specific at the same time. Therefore, using this lexical bundle

can add to the learners collocations of introducing a new object in the sentence or

writing.

Figure 5. Findings of as well as

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As well as is used to point out the additional information regarding the

aforementioned details. This has been widely used as an alternative to and, thus,

using as well as shows parallelism of the sentences, for as well as takes the same

word class for the details. The words following it are singular and plural nouns,

and sometimes the preposition emerges before the noun, depending on the word

class used before it. Therefore, not only that when using this lexical bundle we

need to see the use but also analyze the word class utilized.

To compare with other corpus-based studies investigating lexical bundles,

this study revealed only a small number of lexical bundles, presenting lesser

frequencies. For example, comparing the study conducted by Allen (2010), the

findings show that on the other hand occurs 285 times, which is the highest of

rank, compared to the findings in the present study showing that on the other hand

occurs twice (2). Not only that the number of words analyzed in the corpus is

fewer in the present study but also the types of genres and topics included in the

study are less varied. In fact, the study by Allen (2010) has used the published

academic writings which contain more words and greater themes, whereas the

present study takes only from a website address namely Nytimes.com and cover

only 50 articles that contain 1.000 to 3.000 words limited to business and

economy only. However, this research has its practical advantage for teachers who

are teaching writing and introducing several word combinations for writing

because they could know how to use what and when; simply teachers can conduct

their own corpus analysis to figure out the actual use of certain recurring word

combinations taken from particular registers.

CONCLUSIONS

This corpus-based study on lexical bundles used by English native writers

sharing similar register from Nytimes.com revealed that the most frequently used

word combinations were one of the, some of the, according to the, part of the, and

as well as, grading from the highest to the lowest rank of frequency respectively.

Each was used in different ways but still in convergent ways of the native writers.

This can be added to the knowledge essential for the learners of EFL in order to

achieve several advantages, namely achieving naturalness in the written

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communication, increasing the writing quality, and skilling in persuading and

arguing. Further, in-service teachers can conduct other corpus analysis to know

what other lexical bundles to teach from a different register.

REFERENCES

Allen, D. (2010). Lexical Bundles in Learner Writing: An Analysis of Formulaic

Language in the ALESS Learner Corpus. Komaba Journal of English

Education, 1, 105-127.

Biber, D., Conrad, S., & Cortes, V. (2004). If you look at . . .: Lexical Bundles in

University Teaching and Textbooks. Applied Linguistics, 25(3), 371-405.

Cortes, V. (2002). Lexical Bundles in Freshman Composition. In S. R. Reppen,

M. Fitzmaurice & D. Biber (Eds.), Using Corpora to Explore Linguistic

Variation (pp. 363-379). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Hyland, K. (2008). As can be Seen: Lexical Bundles and Disciplinary Variation.

English for Specific Purposes, 27, 4–21.

Irvin, L. L. (2010). What is "Academic" Writing? In C. Lowe & P. Zemliansky

(Eds.), Writing Spaces: Reading on Writing: Parlor Press.

Jalali, H. (2013). Lexical Bundles in Applied Linguistics: Variations across

Postgraduate Genres. Foreign Language Teaching and Translation

Studies, 2(2).

Jalali, Z. S., & Moini, M. R. (2014). Structure of Lexical Bundles in Introduction

Section of Medical Research Articles. Procedia - Social and Behavioral

Sciences, 98, 719 – 726.

McDougall, W., & Nishino, T. (2011). Editing Tips for Effective Writing. from

https://www.sas.upenn.edu/irp/editing-tips-effective-writing

Millar, N. (2009). Assessing the Processing Demands of Learner Collocation

Error. Paper presented at the Corpus Linguistic 2009, Liverpool, UK.

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APPENDIX A

KEN HYLAND’S LIST OF LEXICAL BUNDLES

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APPENDIX B

THE LEXICAL BUNDLES AND THE RECURRING FREQUENCY

3-Word Freq. 4-Word Freq.

in order to 3 on the other hand 2

in terms of 2 at the same time 4

one of the 19 in the case of 3

the use of 1 the end of the 4

as well as 10 as well as the 2

the number of 7 at the end of 2

due to the - in terms of the -

on the other - on the basis of -

based on the - in the present study -

the other hand 2 is one of the 2

in this study - in the form of -

a number of 4 the nature of the -

the fact that 3 the results of the -

most of the 2 the fact that the -

there is a 9 as a result of 1

according to the 11 in relation to the -

the present study - at the beginning of -

part of the 11 with respect to the -

the end of 6 the other hand the -

the relationship between - the relationship between the -

in the following - in the context of -

the role of - can be used to -

some of the 14 to the fact that -

as a result 2 as shown in figure -

it can be 1 it was found that -