| Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 25-45 |
| Abbreviation: APJCR |
| e-ISSN: 2733-8096 |
| Publication date: 31 August 2025 |
| Received: 25 May 2025 / Received in Revised Form: 5 August 2025 / Accepted: 17 August 2025 |
| DOI: https://doi.org/10.22925/apjcr.2025.6.1.25
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“I agree with this”: A multi-modal register analysis of lexical bundles in the ICNALE |
| Trevor Sitler (Kansai University), JAPAN; Martin Spivey (Akita University), JAPAN |
| Copyright 2025 APJCR This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Abstract |
| The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in lexical bundle use between the different registers of speaking and writing in a learner corpus. While various studies have examined multi-word items by foreign language learners, there is currently a lack of research on lexical bundle use in spoken corpora, particularly monologues. A comparative register analysis was designed to compare the lexical bundle output of L1 Japanese students of English in two corpora of argumentative written essays and spoken monologues, with two native speaker corpora being compared for reference. 4-word lexical bundles were extracted and analyzed through a Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) and categorized into two functional and structural taxonomies. Findings suggest bundle frequency decreases as proficiency level increases. Compositionally, it was found that both registers are structurally and functionally similar to each other, though the Japanese spoken monologue sub-corpus was the least varied. Furthermore, the use of prompt-specific language was found to be more influenced by register than L1 background, with both groups producing a significant amount of language that was dependent on the prompt. The register descriptions found in this study can inform pedagogical approaches to writing and monologue tasks. |
Keywords |
| ICNALE, Learner Corpora, Lexical Bundles, Register Analysis, Sketch Engine |
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The Authors |
| Kevin Heffernan is a Professor at Kwansei Gakuin University. He has written many articles about the Japanese language on a wide range of topics, such as local identity, language contact, language change, the formation of irregular forms, vernacular Japanese, and cognitive processing. He has published two textbooks about linguistics. |
The Authors’ Addresses |
| First and Corresponding Author Trevor Sitler Ph.D. Student Kansai University 3-chōme-3-35 Yamatecho, Suita, Osaka, JAPAN Email: sitlert@yahoo.comCo-author Martin Spivey Assistant Professor Akita University 1-1 Tegatagakuenmachi, Akita, JAPAN Email: mart.spiv@gmail.com
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