Lexical Ties in Applied Linguistics Research Articles among Iranian and Non-Iranian Authors: A Comparative Corpusbased Study

Abstract

One of the difficult parts of utilizing a foreign language is creating a united text which contains various kinds of lexical ties. This problem even becomes critical when creating the language in a written form. The current study tried to compare the frequency of the utilization of lexical ties in applied linguistics research articles written by Iranian and Non-Iranian authors. To fulfill, two sets of corpora (Iranian and Non-Iranian) were selected each containing30 articles. In this study, the utilization of two types of lexical ties, i.e. reiteration and collocation were investigated in the abstracts, introduction and discussion and conclusion of Iranian and Non-Iranian applied linguistics research articles. Having collected the data from the two mentioned corpora, the researchers estimated the frequency of lexical ties. Then, Linear Regression was run to compare the utilization of lexical ties in the two sets of corpora. The findings revealed that there was not a statistically significant difference in the utilization of lexical ties in abstracts, introduction and discussion and conclusion sections of applied linguistics research articles. The results of this study have several implications for language teachers and EFL students.