I will write about: Investigating multiword expressions in prospective students' argumentative writing

Area of Science:

• Linguistics
• Applied Linguistics
• Second Language Acquisition

Background:

• Multiword expressions (MWEs) are crucial for fluency and idiomaticity in academic writing.
• Understanding MWE usage differences can inform pedagogical approaches for nonnative English speakers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the phraseological profile of MWEs in Korean nonnative university students' argumentative writing with that of American university students.
• To analyze structural and functional variations in MWEs across different student writing corpora.

Main Methods:

• Quantitative and qualitative analysis of a 120,000-word corpus of Korean students' argumentative writing.
• Comparison with two corpora of American university students' course papers and essays.
• Examination of MWEs based on structure (noun, verb, prepositional phrases) and function (stance, referential, text organizer).

Main Results:

• Korean students predominantly used verb phrase-based MWEs (e.g., "are a lot of"), while American students favored noun phrases.
• Korean writers underused referential MWEs (e.g., "the idea of the") compared to American students.
• Korean students' writing exhibited a wider range of MWEs, whereas American students' writing showed a narrower range.

Conclusions:

• Prospective Korean university students' writing incorporates more features of spoken conversation.
• American university students' writing demonstrates characteristics of structured argumentative discourse.
• Findings have implications for teaching academic writing to nonnative English speakers, focusing on MWEs and discourse structure.