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“What are you talking about?” An analysis of lexical bundles in Japanese junior high school textbooks

Northbrook, Julian; Conklin, Kathy

Authors

Julian Northbrook

KATHY CONKLIN K.CONKLIN@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Psycholinguistics



Abstract

In a communicative approach to language teaching, students are presented with ‘authentic’ language, which is thought to allow them to produce it in a nativelike way. The current study explores whether the lexical bundles in communicative Japanese junior high school textbooks are representative of conversational English. To do this, we use a corpus-based approach that compares the most frequent lexical bundles in the textbooks to those in an English reference corpus. The study finds that although lexical bundles are very frequent in the textbooks, and conform relatively well to English patterns at shorter lengths (3-word lexical bundles), they deviate considerably at longer ones (4-, 5- and 6-words). This has important implications for the communicative utility of the language in the textbooks.

Citation

Northbrook, J., & Conklin, K. (2018). “What are you talking about?” An analysis of lexical bundles in Japanese junior high school textbooks. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 23(3), 311-334

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 2, 2018
Online Publication Date Nov 30, 2018
Publication Date Nov 30, 2018
Deposit Date Oct 29, 2018
Publicly Available Date Oct 29, 2018
Print ISSN 1384-6655
Electronic ISSN 1569-9811
Publisher John Benjamins Publishing
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 23
Issue 3
Pages 311-334
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1202460
Publisher URL https://benjamins.com/catalog/ijcl.16024.nor
Contract Date Oct 29, 2018