Combining Corpus‐Based Methods With Interviews in Applied Linguistics Research

This chapter exemplifies how corpus-based methods can be combined with interviews to research second language (L2) writing within a sequential mixed-methods design, which is rarely used in L2 research. Both metadiscourse features and lexical phrases are important linguistic features for L2 writers to gain mastery in academic writing. Since academic writing is a social activity of meaning-making between writers and readers, metadiscourse features play a key role for readers to understand writers' viewpoints in texts. The chapter analyses L2 writers' metalinguistic knowledge of lexical phrases in their discipline-specific academic writing and link this knowledge with their actual use of lexical phrases within a longitudinal design. A number of large written learner corpora are now available; however, there is value to compile a local learner corpus, since it has the greater potential to be more relevant and useful in the researcher's context.