Attitudinal/Stance Lexical Bundles in Secondary School Students’ Narratives: A Comparative Analysis of Native and Non-Native Speakers’ Written Register

Analyzing multi-word expressions aids in understanding how native and non-native English speakers in secondary schools differ in expressing their attitude and stance, especially in written compositions. Thus, this study sought to compare and analyze the attitudinal/stance lexical bundles used by students in their narratives, specifically in terms of epistemicity, desire, obligation/directive, intention/prediction, and ability to conclude which between the native and non-native speakers used attitudinal/stance lexical bundles more frequently. Results showed that non-native English learners demonstrated a greater number of attitudinal/stance lexical bundles compared to their native counterparts, except in terms of desire. Non-native speakers employed more indirect and impersonal variations, unlike the native speakers whose expressions were more direct and straightforward. In line with these findings, further studies on the implications of the observed rarity and higher frequency of attitudinal/stance bundles use by non-native learners are hereby recommended.