Reviewing International Researches on Computer-Assisted Language Testing from 2011 to 2021—A Visual Analysis Using CiteSpace

Abstract

With the development of information technology, computer is gradually used in language testing. This paper analyses the articles of computer-assisted language testing published in the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) database of Web of Science between 2011 and 2021 using CiteSpace, a visual analysis software. The analysis focused on the number of publications, countries and institutions, authors, keywords and so on. It is found out that the number of publications in this field shows a trend of increasing in a fluctuating manner from 2011 to 2021, and reached a peak in 2020. Countries with the most publications are the USA, China and England, and most of the institutions with relatively more publications are universities. The research hotspot and frontier in this field include students’ performance in computer-assisted language testing and so on. Meanwhile, there are some research gaps in this field which include students’ or teachers’ adaptability of computer-assisted language testing, the washback of computer-assisted language testing on language teaching and so on. It is hoped that this paper can provide reference on the application of computer-assisted language testing in language teaching and the future research in this field.