Prepositional phrase Lexical bundles in the writings of Kurdish learners of English

Abstract

    Prepositional phrase lexical bundles are a numeral recurrent sequence of words, differing fundamentally from other categories of lexical bundles. These particular categories of lexical bundles have frequent usages in academic English writings and play a crucial role in articulating relation between ideas and arranging discourse. This study investigates, examines, and explores the usage of the prepositional phrase within lexical bundles written by Kurdish EFL students enrolled in the Department of English at Salahaddin University-Erbil. A total of 60 student’s essays were collected, analysed and examined using a corpus-based methodological approach. The analysis revealed that Kurdish learners primarily utilized referential framing bundles (e.g., in terms of the, in the field of) to explain contexts or structure arguments, alongside and in tandem with temporal phrases (e.g., at the same time, in recent years) to link concepts sequentially. The findings indicate that learners heavily rely on prepositional phrases to establish relationships between concepts, clarify abstract concepts, organize discourse, necessitating pedagogical strategies to diversify usage while addressing cross-linguistic influences on bundle selection.