<![CDATA[This study addresses the limited empirical attention to how Recurrent Multi-word Sequences (RMS) reflect syntactic structure and function in EFL students’ writing, particularly in the English Language Education Study Programme (ELESP), Universitas Negeri Gorontalo. It examines how students use RMS in terms of syntactic structure and function and compares the writing patterns of third-semester and fifth-semester students. A qualitative comparative design was employed using a learner corpus consisting of 143 student writing texts, with 98 texts from third-semester students and 45 texts from fifth-semester students. Data were analyzed using AntConc to identify four-word RMS based on frequency and range, followed by concordance analysis to examine their syntactic structures and discourse functions. The findings reveal a clear difference in syntactic patterns between the two cohorts. Third-semester students predominantly used noun phrase (NP)-structured RMS, accounting for 66.7% of their total RMS frequency, whereas fifth-semester students predominantly used verb phrase (VP)-structured RMS, accounting for 66.3%. Functionally, discourse organizers were dominant in both cohorts, representing 79.5% of RMS in the third-semester corpus and 64.2% in the fifth-semester corpus. However, fifth-semester students showed a higher proportion of stance expressions, increasing from 20.5% in the third-semester corpus to 35.8% in the fifth-semester corpus. The findings suggest a shift from topic-centered and referential language patterns toward more verb-centered, general academic, and evaluative patterns as students progress to a higher semester. Pedagogically, the findings imply that EFL writing instruction should provide greater attention to recurrent academic language patterns, particularly varied noun and verb phrase constructions, discourse organizers, and stance expressions, to support students’ syntactic development, cohesion, and ability to express academic arguments more effectively.]]>
