ELF discourse, expert writing, formulaic language, genre, L2 expert writing, research paper, word clusters and chunks, conventional ENL norms

Research into various aspects of formulaic language in academia has revealed that recurrent formulaic clusters (lexical bundles/sequences, multi-word combinations, chunks, prefabs) are genre-, discipline-, register-dependent and user-oriented. No scholarly attention has so far been paid to the use of formulaic clusters by L2-English experts in research papers that have not undergone professional language brokering services. The present study examines the forms, structures and functions of n-word clusters employed by L1 Czech experts submitting their texts for publication in English medium journals. The analysis shows that ELF texts reveal a tendency for phrasal constructions, and verbal and clausal constructions are much less employed. These are signals of L1 expert production, however, L2 experts use fewer stance-oriented clusters while research-oriented cluster dominate 3-word chunks and discourse-oriented clusters are typical of 4-word chunks. Potential approximation reveal very low frequency and the tendency is towards conventional ENL forms.