Processing of Lexical Bundles by Persian Speaking Learners of English

Formulaic sequence (FS) is a general term often used to refer to various types of recurrent clusters. One particular type of FSs common in different registers is lexical bundles (LBs). This study investigated whether LBs are stored and processed as a whole in the mind of language users and whether their functional discourse type has any effect on their processing. To serve these objectives, three self-paced reading experiments were set out using the DMDX computer program. The stimuli consisted of target constituents containing LBs (discourse organizers and referential bundles) and control constituents containing non-lexical bundles (NLBs). Ninety intermediate Iranian EFL learners were selected and assigned to three groups randomly. Participants were asked to read each stimulus and answer the question that followed. The stimuli were presented word-by-word, portion-by-portion, and sentence-by-sentence in three experiments. The results showed no significant difference between LBs and NLBs in all three experiments, meaning that LBs are not stored and processed as a whole in the mind of language users. In addition, participants read referential bundles significantly faster than discourse organizers in the word-by-word experiment.