Focuses and Trends of Domestic Research on English Corpus: A Visual Analysis Based on CiteSpace

Abstract

Driven by the advances in computer technology, the construction of and research on corpus are in full swing. In this context, based on the CNKI database and aided by CiteSpace software, this study conducts a bibliometric visual analysis of 255 articles related to English corpus research and published in domestic core journals from 2002 to 2022. The analyses focus on six dimensions: publishing trend, authorial and institutional cooperation networks, keyword co-occurrence and cluster analyses, and analysis of the keywords with the strongest citation bursts. Results show that: (1) These articles are mainly published in 13 core journals on foreign languages, and the number of publications has shown a decreasing trend since 2016; (2) The authorial and institutional cooperation networks in this field are relatively thin; (3) Keyword analyses suggest that researchers have been dedicated to a variety of topics, and different research hotspots are presented in different time periods. The research focuses of the first stage (2002-2007) include collocation and English/second language writing. In the second stage (2008-2014), researchers zoom in on corpus-based autonomous English learning and the use of Internet learning resources. The research hotspots of the third stage (2016-2022) turn to the exploration of lexical chunks, teaching modes, academic English and medical English. Finally, this article provides insights into the directions for future studies.