Structural and Functional Features of Lexical Bundles Used by English Learners at Different Proficiency Levels
Based on China's Standards of English Language Ability(CSE)to evaluate learners'language proficiency levels,a corpus-driven method is employed to examine Chinese learners'use of lexical bundles in English writing and in particular the structural and functional features of the lexical bundles used by English learners at different proficiency levels.It is found that learners'language proficiency affects the accuracy and diversity of the lexical bundles they use.Students of lower proficiency are found to use more proportion of verb bundles and less proportion of phrase bundles,showing the characteristics of conversational discourse,while students of higher proficiency use more proportion of phrase bundles and less proportion of verb bundles,displaying the characteristics of academic discourse.In terms of their functions,the higher the students'English proficiency level,the lower the proportion of stance bundles and referential bundles are used.The higher the students'English proficiency level,the higher the proportion of discourse organizing bundles.These findings may provide experimental evidence for the description of language features of Chinese English learners at different proficiency levels,and some enlightenment for automated language assessment.
China's Standards of English Language Ability(CSE)language proficiency levellexical bundlestructurefunction
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
