A longitudinal study of multi-word constructions in L2 academic writing: the effects of frequency and dispersion
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A longitudinal study of multi‑word constructions in L2 academic writing: the effects of frequency and dispersion Duygu Candarli1 Accepted: 17 November 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract This study examined the trajectories of the multi-word constructions (MWCs) in 98 advanced second language (L2) learners during their first-year at an Englishmedium university in a non-English-speaking country, using linear mixed-effects modelling, over one academic year. In addition, this study traced the academic reading input that L2 learners received at university, and it was investigated whether the frequency and dispersion of the MWCs in the input corpus would predict the frequencies of MWCs in L2 writers’ essays. The findings revealed variations in the frequencies of different functional and structural categories of MWCs over time. This study provides empirical evidence for the effects of both frequency and dispersion of MWCs in the input corpus on the frequency of MWCs in L2 writers’ essays, underscoring the importance of both frequency and dispersion in learning MWCs and the reciprocity of academic reading and writing. The findings have significant implications for usage-based approaches to language learning, modelling MWCs in L2 academic writing, and L2 materials design for teaching academic writing. Keywords Multi-word constructions · Academic writing · Longitudinal study · L2 writing · Corpus linguistics It is well-established that multi-word constructions (MWCs), such as ‘on the other hand’, constitute important discourse building blocks in English academic writing, mostly relying on noun and prepositional phrases (e.g., Biber, 2009; Biber, Conrad, & Cortes, 2004; Hyland, 2008). In the literature, a number of terms have been employed for MWCs, including ‘lexical bundles’ (Biber et al., 2004), ‘formulaic sequences’ (Wray, 2002), and ‘academic formulas’ (Simpson-Vlach & Ellis, 2010), Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s1114 5-020-10108-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Duygu Candarli [email protected] 1
School of Education and Social Work, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, UK
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and these terms often have overlapping characteristics (Wray, 2002). The present study employs Liu’s (2012) term ‘multi-word constructions’ to signal frequently occurring three-, four-, and five-word sequences in English academic writing and takes a usage-based approach to MWCs. As Liu (2012, p. 25) noted, “the term construction is adopted over expression/phrase/unit because it is a term preferred by contemporary linguistic theories such as Cognitive Linguistics.” Multi-word constructions have important discourse functions, as they introduce propositions (referential expressions), establish textual relations (discourse organisers), and express writers’ (un)certainty and attitudes towards propositions (stance expressions) (Biber et al., 2004; Hyland, 2008). Referential expressions are the
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