Exploring L1 and L2 Writing Development through Collocations: A Corpus-based Look

Abstract

This chapter explores how English first and second language elementary students (ages 8 to 12) writing in English, use 3-word lexical bundles in various writing tasks (for example, expository, narrative, and taking a position). Lexical bundles are sequences of words that are empirically identified through the use of a computer program, rather than a researcher thinking up phrases or groups of words that are noticeable in discourse and then searching for those sequences. In other words, the bundles emerge from the corpus rather than from the researcher as a starting point, in contrast to most phraseological studies (Moon, 1998). Because the bundles are identified computationally and not by the human eye, these bundles are not always complete structural units, for example: take a look at, can I have a (Biber et al., 1999b). In this chapter, I use the lexical bundles found in student writing to explore writing development across three grade levels of elementary students and also the influence of first language on the use of lexical bundles.