Lexical bundles in L1 and L2 English thesis abstracts: a corpus-driven move approach

Lexical bundles are considered to be building blocks of written academic genres, including abstracts. Whilst the focus has primarily been on lexical bundles in abstracts of higher-level writing, little attention has been given to abstracts of lower-level theses. This study aimed to uncover differences between types and frequencies of lexical bundles and their structural patterns and textual roles within rhetorical moves in abstracts of students’ theses written in L1 and L2 English. In addition to the two novice writers’ corpora, we built a third corpus containing abstracts from research papers by L1 expert writers. Results revealed parallels and differences between L1 and L2 novice writing, and between novice and expert writing. L2 novice writers showed nearly over-cautious dependence on formulaic language, repeating the same patterns and functions and frequently failing to achieve their communicative purpose. Despite the similarities between the two types of novice writing, L1 novice writers showed similarities with L1 experts. A pedagogical implication is encouraging more diverse grammatical patterns and textual functions, which would result in a more accurate portrayal of the research conducted.