Native English and non-native authors’ utilisation of lexical bundles: A corpus-based study of scholarly public health papers

Abstract: This study examined the use of lexical bundles in the results and discussion sections of public health research articles (RAs) by comparing the native English writers with Iranian non-native English writers. To this end, four-, five-, and six-word lexical bundles were contrastively investigated in two different sub-corpora i.e. a native English corpus (NEC) and a non-native English corpus (NNEC). The corpus contained 496 985 words, and each sub-corpora included 100 RAs. The RAs were then examined structurally and functionally. The data were analysed both quantitatively, using frequency count and chi-square analyses, and qualitatively through content analysis. Based on the results, from among the lexical bundles, 29 four-word, 17 five-word, and one six-word bundles were identified in the NEC, while 52 four-word, 27 five-word, and five six-word bundles were found in the NNEC. The findings highlight that Iranian non-native English authors employed more four-word, five-word and six-word lexical bundles than native English authors. The descriptive and overall findings also suggested some differences in the two groups’ functional and structural patterns of lexical bundles, whereas statistically insignificant differences were identified in the structural patterns of bundles in the groups. These findings lay considerable emphasis on the central part that lexical bundles play in English for academic purposes (EAP) and English for specific purposes (ESP) courses.