حسن جلالی

This study was intended first to categorize the L2 learners in terms of their learning style preferences and second to investigate if their learning preferences are related to lexical inferencing. Moreover, strategies used for lexical inferencing and text related issues of text density and parts of speech were studied to determine their moderating effects and the best predictors of lexical inferencing. To this end, a posttest group design with 142 students studying engineering was adopted for the study. Perceptual style preferences questionnaire was administered to identify the students’ major learning styles, followed by strategy training for deriving the meaning of unknown words. Finally, lexical inferencing texts were given to the students to study and extract the meaning of unknown words and concurrently determine the type of strategy used for lexical inferencing. The results indicated that a great proportion of students belonged to the kinesthetic category of styles while the predominant treatments in the class were audio-visually structured. The analysis also revealed that tactile, kinesthetic, and group categories of style preferences are meaningfully related. Moreover, it was found that learning style preferences lead to statistically different lexical ineferncing. As for the strategies, the ‘syntactic knowledge analysis’ showed the highest correlation with ‘auditory learners’. Lexical density and parts of speech were also shown to moderate the effect of perceptual style preferences on lexical ability. On the whole, strategy and perceptual style preferences were found to be the two best predictors of successful lexical inferencing.

Lexical bundles are known as important elements of coherent discourse that have been the subject of much research. While the previous research has been mainly concerned with exploring variations in the use of these word sequences across different registers and disciplines, very few studies have addressed the use of some particular groups of lexical bundles within some types of academic writing. To probe in to the possible generic variations, this research focused on anticipatory it bundles as a particular structural group of these word sequences. More specifically, this study chose to investigate range, frequency, and function of these word clusters in applied linguistics published and unpublished writings. Through the use of two big corpora and text analysis programs, this study found that it bundles were used relatively frequently in both published and unpublished writings. Functional analysis also showed that it bundles served a wide variety of functions in both types of writings. Notwithstanding these findings, this study also revealed that some it bundles commonly used in unpublished writing did not count as bundles in published writing.

Lexical bundles, frequent word combinations that commonly occur in different registers, have attracted researchers in corpus linguistics in the last decade. While most previous studies of bundles have been mainly concerned with variations in the use of these word sequences across different registers, very few studies have focused on their use across disciplines. To address possible disciplinary variations in the use of these word combinations in academic register, this quantitative and qualitative study chose to investigate, compare, and contrast range, frequency, and function of anticipatory it bundles as a sub-set of these word clusters with important metadiscursive functions in published writing. For this purpose, the study zoomed in research articles of applied linguistics and analytical chemistry as a soft and hard science, respectively. The results indicated that generally anticipatory it bundles could be regarded as a distinctive characteristic of academic writing in both disciplines. At the same time, each discipline was found to draw almost on a particular set of it bundles in the development of its discourse. However, analytical chemistry seemed to rely more on these bundles in the development of its discourse. Functional analysis also showed that it bundles served a wide variety of functions in both disciplinary areas. Therefore, this study called for a more robust pedagogical focus on different multi-word sequences like anticipatory it lexical bundles. The findings also highlighted the importance of a more genre-focused EAP (English for academic purposes).

This comparative corpus-based study was launched to analyze the use of intensifiers and indefinite pronouns indicating generality in two disciplines of applied linguistics (AL) and power system engineering (PSE). Accordingly, four corpora were considered in this study: two corpora representing English articles written by L1-English writers in applied linguistics (L1-English AL corpus) and power system engineering (L1-English PSE corpus), and two other corpora (L1-Persian AL corpus and L1-Persian PSE corpus) belonging to English articles written by L1-Persian writers in the same two disciplines. The findings revealed that the indefinite pronouns were used more frequently than intensifiers in all corpora; on the other hand, the use of qualified-generalization markers in the two L1-Persian corpora exceeded that in the L1-English corpora. As for disciplinary differences, the AL conclusions contained more generalization and qualified-generalization stance markers, as compared to their PSE counterparts. The study concludes with some implications regarding the representation of authorial voice.

The study of linguistic devices variously referred to as stance expressions is one of the best means by which the relationship between the writer, the reader, and propositional meaning could be examined. This paper looks at a particular structural group of lexical bundles encoding stance expressions. These are bundles starting with an anticipatory it followed by is, a predicative adjective and finally ending with infinitival to or complementizer that (e.g. it is important to, it is possible that). The use of these bundles is compared in three corpora of research articles, doctoral dissertations, and master theses in the discipline of applied linguistics to explore possible generic variations and identify possible differences between published students writing. Using Hewings and Hewings's functional typology of interpersonal roles of it clauses (2002), this group of bundles is found to have three stance expressions of hedging, marking attitude, and stressing emphasis. The major difference is discovered to be between students' genres and research articles, with the former drawing less in their expression of interpersonal meanings. The differences are accounted for by referring to generic expectations, and students' growing disciplinary identity. The findings of the study have some implications for academic writing.

As building blocks of coherent discourse, lexical bundles, frequent word combinations that commonly occur in different registers, have attracted the attention of researchers in corpus linguistics in the last decade. The importance of these word clusters lies in their often necessary functional contribution to the development of evolving discourse. While most previous studies of bundles have been mainly concerned with variations in the use of these word sequences across different registers (e.g., conversation, classroom teaching, and lectures) and a number of disciplines (e.g., history and biology), postgraduate genres have not been the subject of adequate rigorous analysis. This corpus-based study explored possible differences andor similarities between two students' genres in terms of the variety, structure, and function of lexical bundles. Through two corpora of master theses and doctoral dissertations in one single discipline of applied linguistics, the study showed that not only was there a large intradisciplinary difference between the two genres in the range of bundles employed, but also there were some striking differences in the total frequency and function of these word combinations. Some implications for academic writing instruction have also been discussed.

The study of lexical bundles, known as fixed phrases, chunks, clusters and multi-word expressions, has attracted considerable attention. While there has been much research on lexical bundles across different registers and a number of disciplines, their deployment in some special sections of research articles as the most high-stakes genre has not yet been well explored. Accordingly, the present study aimed at identifying 4-word lexical bundles by analyzing the data obtained from a collection of the abstract and conclusion sections of 1000 English research articles written by L1-persian and L1-English writers in AL and IT , as published between 2015 and 2019. The researchers used Antconc software to analyze the data composed of about 600,000 words; then, the functional analysis was carried out based on Hyland's (2008) framework. Overall, the analysis revealed that AL writers outweighed their IT counterparts in their use of lexical bundles. Also, L1-persian writers used more lexical bundles in the abstract section; despite this, both writers used the same number of bundles in the conclusion section. In addition, both AL and IT writers had a similar use of the three main functional categories; however, there were substantial differences and similarities in regard to these two parts of research articles. The findings of this study can help writing instructors to improve students' academic writing. They can enhance their abilities to better comprehend the role of lexical bundles in different genres and sub-genres.