jsss2014 symposium (atsushi mizumoto)

1

Corpus-based analysis of lexical bundles: Its potential applications in English language teaching

!

Atsushi MIZUMOTO Kansai University

The Japan Society for Speech Sciences Open Forum 2014, Symposium October 12, 2014 at KG Umeda Campus

Lexical bundles

1. Definition and what we know about LB

2. My research

3. Teaching LB

Lexical bundlesDefinition


• chunks

• multiword units

• clusters

• idioms

• collocations

• formulas

• prefabricated routines

• conventionalized forms

• lexical bundles

• etc.

Formulaic sequence (language) (Schmitt, 2004)

Formulaic sequence

• Ubiquitous in language use (Nattinger & Decarrico, 1992)

• Constitute more than 50% of spoken and written discourse (Erman & Warren, 2000)

• Important component of language learning and use (Schmitt, 2005)

• appear to be stored in the mind as holistic units (Schmitt & Carter, 2004)


• chunks

• multiword units

• clusters

• idioms

• collocations

• formulas

• prefabricated routines

• conventionalized forms

• lexical bundles

• etc.

Formulaic sequence (language) (Schmitt, 2004)


"Lexical bundles are recurrent expressions, regardless of their idiomaticity, and regardless of their structural status. That is, lexical bundles are simply sequences of word forms that commonly go together in natural discourse" (Biber et al., 1999, Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, Chapter 13)


• A building block of discourse= shows that the writer belongs to the discourse community (Biber & Barbieri, 2007; Biber, Conrad, & Cortes, 2004; Cortes, 2004; Hyland, 2008a; 2008b)

• Examples of LB: the extent to which, it is likely to, on the other hand, the role of the, at the end of, as well as the


• How do we analyze them? N-gram: 3-gram (tri-gram), 4-gram, 5-gram

• 4-gram is often used“they are far more common than 5-word strings and offer a clearer range of structures and functions than 3-word bundles” (Hyland, 2008)."many four-word bundles hold three-word bundles in their structures" (Cortes, 2004).

How do we do that?

BNC Baby Edition (Hyland, 2008a)

• 3- and 4-word lexical bundles made up 28 percent of the conversation and 20 percent of the academic prose (Biber et al., 1999)

• Stored and processed as single units (Tremblay et al., 2011)

• Functions of bundles (Biber et al., 2004; Hyland, 2008).

Lexical bundles

My research

My research

• Articles in 10 international journals from 1995 to 2008 (31 million words)

• Applied Linguistics, ELT Journal, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Language Learning, Language Teaching Research, Modern Language Journal, RELC Journal, Second Language Research, System, TESOL Quarterly

Mizumoto (2009)

4-grams (Top 250)Examples

−2 0 2 4 6

05

10

Dimension 1

Dim

ensi

on 2

on the other handin the case ofon the basis ofat the same time

at the end ofthe end of thethe results of theas well as thethe extent to whichin the context of

in terms of the

in the present study

the use of thethe nature of theas a result ofit is important toin the form ofthe fact that theon the one handto be able to

at the beginning ofa wide range ofin the use of

in the target languagethe ways in which

in the field of

on the part ofshown in table #the beginning of thethe meaning of the

in the process ofthe role of the

that there is a

with respect to theone of the mostthe case of thein relation to the

in other words theto the fact that

of the present studyat the time ofthe total number of

in addition to thea great deal ofthe basis of the

the rest of the

the way in which

the degree to which

it is possible that

for each of the

at the level of

with regard to the

from ## to ##

is one of the

in the development of

as part of the

in table # thein a variety ofthe results of this

the part of thethe use of ait should be noted

in the acquisition ofthe purpose of the

in the same way

the content of thethe relationship between the

it is difficult toas a means ofthe development of the

it is clear thaton the use of

it is possible to

a total of ##

can be seen in

to the development oftable # shows the

in a number ofas can be seen

in the course ofthe other hand thethat there is no

to the use of

in the language classroom

in the sense that

of the role of

can be used toof the use of

with the exception of

in the current study

the one hand anda large number of

speakers of other languages

and the use of

can be seen as

between the two groupsas well as in

that the use ofin the area ofthe purpose of this

the difference between thethe analysis of theis based on the

from the perspective ofthe majority of the

should be noted that

as well as toby the fact that

a wide variety offor the purpose of

in the absence of

## per cent of

in a way thatdifference between the twoa result of the

in the light of

on the role ofthrough the use of

is likely to beit is necessary to

of the fact that

the time of the

to the extent that

to the study ofresults of this study

can be found intables # and #

the students in the

presented in table #

as a function ofas shown in tablethe quality of thein contrast to the

in the teaching of

is important to notethe participants in the

that it is not

the development of a

it is not clear

on the development ofused in this studythe focus of the

in this study weremeans and standard deviationsby the end of

in the number ofstudents were asked to

are more likely to

it is interesting to

the importance of the

for the most part

for example in thefor the use ofin this study the

in this case thethe structure of the

table # shows thatdespite the fact thatfor the development of

important to note thatthere was a significant

in light of the

significant difference between thein an attempt tobetween ## and ##in the study of

for the first time

over the course of

are likely to be

in the classroom andin spite of the

to do with the

the differences between theeach of the threean important role in

the form of a

the teaching and learningto the teaching of

of a number of

of the nature ofin each of theparticipants were asked toa number of studies

extent to which the

in response to thean understanding of the

shown in figure #

the course of thethe number of wordswithin the context of

of the present perfect

a high level of

as a way ofmay or may notthe use of English in the next section

a better understanding ofin such a way

participants in this study

over a period ofdue to the fact

the effect of the

the two types ofat the expense of

as a lingua franca

of some of the

the complexity of thethere was no significanta native speaker of

it was found that

significant differences between the

a small number of

as one of the

that is to say

they were asked to

focus on form in

the end of each

a discussion of the

a high degree ofas in the case

languages other than English

the results of aabout the nature ofin this article we

does not mean thatmore likely to be

the validity of the

in the sense of

of the importance of

as well as for

does not seem to

play a role inin order to makeit is likely thatan analysis of theways in which the

a case study of

the question of whetherto account for the

will be able to

on the assumption that

in which they are

the findings of the

when it comes to

in view of the

it may be thatas the basis for

from a variety of

to ensure that the

in the first place

−2 −1 0 1 2 3 4

−20

24

6

AL

ELT IJAL

LL

LTR

MLJ

RELC

SLR

System

TESOLQ

−2 0 2 4 6

05

10

Dimension 1

Dim

ensi

on 2



in terms of the





in the field of



that there is a





the rest of the

the way in which

the degree to which

it is possible that

for each of the

at the level of

with regard to the

from ## to ##

is one of the


as part of the




in the same way




it is possible to

a total of ##

can be seen in




to the use of


in the sense that

of the role of






and the use of

can be seen as








in the absence of

## per cent of


in the light of



of the fact that

the time of the

to the extent that



the students in the



in the teaching of


that it is not


it is not clear




are more likely to



for the most part





in light of the


for the first time

over the course of

are likely to be


to do with the


the form of a


of a number of


extent to which the


shown in figure #



a high level of





the effect of the


as a lingua franca

of some of the


it was found that


a small number of

as one of the

that is to say

they were asked to

focus on form in

the end of each

a discussion of the





the validity of the

in the sense of


as well as for

does not seem to


a case study of


will be able to


in which they are

the findings of the

when it comes to

in view of the


from a variety of

to ensure that the

in the first place

−2 −1 0 1 2 3 4

−20

24

6

AL

ELT IJAL

LL

LTR

MLJ

RELC

SLR

System

TESOLQ

to the teaching of as a lingua franca speakers of other languages in the teaching of the teaching and learning

significant differences between the in the acquisition of to account for the there was a significant with respect to the

−2 0 2 4 6

05

10

Dimension 1

Dim

ensi

on 2



in terms of the





in the field of



that there is a





the rest of the

the way in which

the degree to which

it is possible that

for each of the

at the level of

with regard to the

from ## to ##

is one of the


as part of the




in the same way




it is possible to

a total of ##

can be seen in




to the use of


in the sense that

of the role of






and the use of

can be seen as








in the absence of

## per cent of


in the light of



of the fact that

the time of the

to the extent that



the students in the



in the teaching of


that it is not


it is not clear




are more likely to



for the most part





in light of the


for the first time

over the course of

are likely to be


to do with the


the form of a


of a number of


extent to which the


shown in figure #



a high level of





the effect of the


as a lingua franca

of some of the


it was found that


a small number of

as one of the

that is to say

they were asked to

focus on form in

the end of each

a discussion of the





the validity of the

in the sense of


as well as for

does not seem to


a case study of


will be able to


in which they are

the findings of the

when it comes to

in view of the


from a variety of

to ensure that the

in the first place

−2 −1 0 1 2 3 4

−20

24

6

AL

ELT IJAL

LL

LTR

MLJ

RELC

SLR

System

TESOLQ

can be used to as can be seen on the assumption that more likely to be on the other hand it is possible to in the first place that is to say

participants in this study in the current study a case study of over the course of the students in the by the end of of the present study in light of the

(Hyland, 2008, p.12)

https://scn.jkn21.com/~percinfo/index.html

−2 −1 0 1 2 3

−4−2

02

4

Dimension 1

Dim

ensi

on 2 on the other handin the case of

shown in fig #

on the basis of

in the presence of

at the end ofas well as thethe end of the

as a function of


at the same timein terms of the

as a result of

in the absence of

the results of the

with respect to thein the context ofthe fact that the

the nature of theit is important toin the form ofthe use of the

a wide range ofthe extent to which

as shown in fig

shown in table #

in fig # thecan be used to

it is possible that

in addition to the

is shown in fig

the total number ofin table # the

at the time of

it is possible to

at the beginning of

from ## to ##

the case of the

it should be noted

on the one handto be able toone of the mosta large number of

has been shown to

the size of thea function of the

to the fact thatthat there is athe basis of the

was found to be

the beginning of the

is based on thein this case the

for each of the

the rest of the

should be noted thatthe effect of theis one of the

in the field of

the use of ait is clear thatthe other hand the

in contrast to the

figs # and #

of the present study

the role of thethe difference between thein the use of

in relation to the

shown in figure #

between ## and ##

in this paper wefig # shows the

as can be seen

the presence of a

at the level of

it is necessary toin other words the


given in table #

is consistent with the

in the process of


can be found in

used in this study

can be seen inthe structure of the

an increase in the

in the number of

in the target languageit is difficult to

the ways in which

a result of the

the presence of the

as well as in

it was found thattables # and #the results of thisa total of ##

on the part of

is likely to be

have been shown to

the relationship between thethe development of the

an important role in

the length of the

in a variety of

in the same way

table # shows the

in a number ofare shown in table

figure # shows the

to that of thewith regard to the

as part of the

similar to that of

the meaning of the

been shown to be

it is likely that

that there is no

the majority of theby the fact that

the magnitude of the

the analysis of thea great deal of

a wide variety of

the performance of the

to the development of

in this section we

the purpose of thispresented in table #

in the sense that

as well as athe degree to which

the way in which it can be seenthe quality of theis due to the

the position of the

play a role in

is the number of

it is interesting toin the course ofin this study the

than that of thethe purpose of the

the value of the

and the number of

the context of the

as shown in table

to the use of

were found to be

on the use of


of the number of

in the next section

may be due to

for the purpose of

it is not clear

the influence of the

the effects of the the surface of the

is related to the

of a number of

there was no significant

the part of thedue to the fact

it has been shown

the time of theare likely to be

as a means of

in such a way

is important to note are given in tablethe top of thefor the first time

be due to the

listed in table #in each of theas well as to

is assumed to be

in the range of

in the area of

to account for the

the development of adifference between the two

these results suggest that

and the use of

it is assumed that


there was a significant

the sum of the

be related to the

of the use ofof the fact thatimportant to note that

as a result thein figure # thethe ratio of thethe center of the

for the development ofwith the use of

between the two groupsin an attempt toof the role of

that the use ofthrough the use of

illustrated in fig #

a small number of

the course of thesummarized in table #results of this study

the form of afor example in the

in view of the

by the presence of

to ensure that thein terms of their

in this study were

can be seen thatto the number of

for the purposes of

the existence of aeach of the three

as in the casebe noted that the

play an important role

despite the fact that

at the expense of

of the effects of

by means of ain a way that

in this study we

in the light of

interesting to note that

the differences between the

are presented in table

of this study was

in spite of the

the complexity of the

## and ## respectively

is interesting to note

presence or absence of

the level of the

table # shows that

to the presence of

of the order of

that it is not

in response to the

studies have shown that

−3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3

−4−2

02

4

ALELTIJAL

LLLTRMLJ

RELCSLRSystemTESOLQ

Agriculture

Biology

Chemistry

Civil.Engineering

Computer.Science

Construction.Building.Technology

Earth.Science

Electrical.Electronic.Engineering

Engineering

Environmental.Sciences

Fisheries

Food.Science

Forestry

General.ScienceMaterials.Science

Mathematics

Medicine

Metallurgy.Metallurgical.EngineeringNuclear.Science.Technology

Oceanography

Physics

Telecommunications

Applied Linguistics PERC

Koyama and Mizumoto (2010)

Teaching lexical bundles

• Word combinations “are so common, it might be assumed that lexical bundles are simple expressions, and that they will therefore be acquired easily” (Biber & Conrad, 1999, p. 188).

• Professional vs. novice writers (Cortes, 2004) → "the use of these expressions by the students in this study, who were all native speakers of English at different university levels, was extremely rare."


Teaching lexical bundleshttp://www.tesol.org/connect/tesol-resource-center/search-details/activities/2013/10/18/teaching-lexical-bundles-to-low-level-proficiency

!Depending on the purpose and level


• ESP / EAP — LBs are useful and especially important in academic writing.!

• Cortes, V. (2006). Teaching lexical bundles in the disciplines: An example from a writing intensive history class. Linguistics and Education, 17, 391–406. doi:10.1016/ j.linged.2007.02.001

Teaching lexical bundles• Cortes (2006)

- History class (writing-intensive)- 20-minute (5 times in 10 weeks)- Exercises (e.g., fill in the blanks, MC, error correction)—Lexical approach (Lewis, 2000)

- Target bundles: on the other hand, as well as the, some of the most, as part of the, as a matter of, as a result of, on the basis of, by the end of, in the age of

Cortes (2006)


• Cortes (2006, p. 391)"The findings of the study reflected no difference between pre- and post- instruction production of lexical bundles but they indicated an increase in students’ awareness of and interest in these expressions."!

• In general: results are not very positive

Schmitt (2005, p. 37)"their use as ‘building blocks’ of language (i.e., often not realizing meaning content in their own right) suggests that they may be less amenable to explicit teaching, simply because the form-meaning relationship is less transparent. However, some of the lexical bundles identified by Biber et al. (1999), entail a clear meaning (e.g., I don’t know, I want to, on the other hand), and these cases may well be worth teaching."

Teaching LB = Plagiarism?"When I first began teaching writing, I often focused on helping students be creative. I encouraged more diversity in vocabulary and more creative word use. From corpus-based research, I have learned that using the typical language structures for certain meanings is actually a sign of proficiency. Using these bundles is not plagiarism; it is a matter of giving readers expected forms that they read efficiently" (Conrad, 2008, p. 125).

Teaching LB = Plagiarism?"Skillful incorporation of academic-sounding lexical bundles will help students sound more like they belong in the academic discourse community of which they they wish to be members . . . As to the plagiarism question, no one could reasonably argue that phrases such as studies have shown that are copyrighted and owned by any author in particular" (Ferris, 2011).

Ways to maximize the effects of teaching LB

• Data-driven learning (DDL)

• Focusing on (rhetorical) "moves"



Chujo et al. (2012)

DDL• Cobb and Boulton (in press)

Pre/post-test (k = 8) d = 1.68, 95% CI [1.36, 2.00] Experimental/control (k = 13) d = 0.73, 95% CI [0.83, 1.25]

• Chujo et al. (2013) Pre/post-test (k = 9) d = 1.26, 95% CI [1.05, 1.47]

* Low level * Computer-/ Paper-based



• Focusing on (rhetorical) "moves"

Typical Lexical Bundles for Hedging (Conrad, 2008)

it is possible that

it is likely that

it may be that

may be due to

is/are likely to be

does not seem to be

does not appear to be

What section do they most occur in?

- Introduction

- Methods

- Results

- Discussion*

"moves"

• CARS (Create a Research Space)

• IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion)

(Cortes, 2013, p. 37)

"Thank you very much." The 4-word lexical bundle dedicated to Dr. Hiroaki "Keiroh" Maeda (1974–2014).

He will be remembered always and forever.

Highlights

• Lexical bundles = More than just n-grams= disciplinary/discourse variations

• Teaching LB is important and necessary in academic writing (EAP/ESP).

• Effects of teaching LB could be enhanced by using DDL and focusing on moves.