JSSS2014 Symposium (Atsushi Mizumoto)

The Japan Society for Speech Sciences
Open Forum 2014, Symposium
October 12, 2014 at KG Umeda Campus
Corpus-based analysis of lexical
bundles: Its potential applications
in English language teaching
1
!
Atsushi MIZUMOTO
Kansai University

Lexical bundles
1. Definition and what we
know about LB
2. My research
3. Teaching LB

Lexical bundles
Definition
Formulaic sequence (language)
(Schmitt, 2004)
• chunks
• multiword units
• clusters
• idioms
• collocations
• formulas
• prefabricated routines
• conventionalized forms
• lexical bundles
• etc.

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)

Lexical bundles
Definition
"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)

Lexical bundles
Definition
• 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

Lexical bundles
Definition
• 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).

BNC Baby Edition (Hyland, 2008a)

Lexical bundles
• 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).

My research
Mizumoto (2009)
• 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

−2 −1 0 1 2 3 4
as a lingua franca
that is to say
the way in which
in the light of
in the sense of
can be seen as
in the first place
that there is a
is likely to be
it is necessary to
does not seem to
it is possible to
more likely to be
the validity of the
in the sense that
a small number of
it was found that
of a number of
the structure of the
at the level of
as can be seen
the in other the same hand way
the
that there is no
that it is not
when it comes to
can be used to
on the assumption that
in relation to the
at the expense of
can be found in
to do with the
are likely to be
can be seen in
in this case the
to the extent that
shown in figure #
does not mean that
is one of the
the rest of the
it is not clear
it is clear that
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−2 0 2 4 6
AL
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MLJ
SLR
System
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−2 −1 0 1 2 3 4
as a lingua franca
that is to say
the way in which
in the light of
in the sense of
can be seen as
in the first place
that there is a
is likely to be
it is necessary to
does not seem to
it is possible to
more likely to be
the validity of the
in the sense that
a small number of
it was found that
of a number of
at the level of
as can be seen
the
that there is no
that it is not
when it comes to
can be used to
in relation to the
at the expense of
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to do with the
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to the extent that
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is one of the
the rest of the
it is not clear
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section
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it should be noted
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a high degree of
in a number of
as part of the
to the fact that
as a way of
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the form of a
to the use of
are more likely to
they were asked to
use of
it is possible that
due to the fact
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in such a way
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by the fact that
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ways in which the
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−2 0 2 4 6
0 5 10
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−2 0 2 4 6
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−2 −1 0 1 2 3 4
as a lingua franca
that is to say
the way in which
in the light of
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can be seen as
in the first place
that there is a
is likely to be
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in the sense that
a small number of
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−2 0 2 4 6
AL
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System
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https://scn.jkn21.com/~percinfo/index.html

−3 −2 −1 0 1 2 3
Telecommunications
Mathematics
in this paper we
Nuclear.Science.Technology
in the next section
Electrical.Electronic.Engineering
figure # shows the
Metallurgy.Metallurgical.Engineering
can be used to in fig # the
in the sense that
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Computer.Science
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Engineering
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Medicine
Food.Science
−2 −1 0 1 2 3
−4 −2 0 2 4
Dimension 1
Dimension 2
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shown in fig #
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−4 −2 0 2 4
AL
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LTR
MLJ
SLR
Agriculture
Biology
Environmental.Sciences
Applied Linguistics PERC

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."

http://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

• 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, 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"

Ways to maximize the
effects of teaching LB
• Data-driven learning (DDL)
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

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)

"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.

JSSS2014 Symposium (Atsushi Mizumoto)

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