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Abstract
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Formulaic language plays an important role in facilitating the encoding and decoding process of language learning. Lexical bundles, as one branch of formulaic expressions, have been focused on by linguists because they pave the way for learners to utilize a series of co-occurring expressions in their productions instead of single words. The present study shed light on the lexical bundles utilized in Soft Science articles written by native and Iranian authors with the elementary purpose of analyzing the structural and functional similarities and differences in the use of these bundles. The secondary purpose was to finalize and present a list of explored lexical bundles employed in these articles, which could be helpful for students. In light of structural classification, the findings showed that Noun phrase + of-phrase fragments and other prepositional phrases were the most widespread and Other passive fragments and Verb phrases with personal pronoun we were the least employed structures of the identified lexical bundles in the articles of NA and IA. Considering the functional classification, the most commonly employed function by both NA and IA was procedure. Native authors employed citation with the least frequency and Iranians utilized generalization less than other functions in their writings. Therefore, there were both similarities and differences in the structural and functional classifications of lexical bundles in the writings of native and Iranian authors. The author recommends the course developers to incorporate a list of the most common lexical bundles beside the existing lists of single words to enrich the students’ knowledge of vocabulary as well as giving them as insight on how a word is used along with others in the form of lexical bundles.
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